


Courtship Displays of the Adolescent Male

by lyrasprinkles



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anime Fan Reader, Awkward Eren Yeager, Bad Flirting, But he's trying, Drink Spiking, Drunken Flirting, Eren Is A Dumb Bitch, Eren Yeager is a Little Shit, Eren's Taking Relationship Advice From Twilight Obviously It Doesn't Go Well, F/M, First Crush, First Kiss, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Inexperienced Eren Yeager, Kabe-Don, Meddling, Mistletoe, Possessive Eren Yeager, Protective Mikasa Ackerman, Reader Is A Pokemon Fan, Reader-Insert, Sasha Blouse & Hange Zoë Are Related, Techie Reader, Underage Drinking, Unintentional Flirting Over Maths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 47,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25860154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyrasprinkles/pseuds/lyrasprinkles
Summary: Eren Yeager has never had a crush before and is very inexperienced when it comes to feelings.[Name] is participating in a big contest soon and is too busy to think about stuff like romance.So when Eren falls for [Name], his friends are thrilled. They'll do anything to help him out......even if they inadvertently end up making things worse in the process.(Boarding School AU)
Relationships: Eren Yeager/Reader, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 54
Kudos: 192





	1. Attraction

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to M, who requested this three years ago. I'm sorry it took so long (╥_╥)
> 
> This story is set in the same universe as my other story What Happened Last Night and is sort of a sequel to it, but you don't have to read that to understand this one. If you have trouble following along, let me know and I'll be happy to explain things for you!
> 
> Decided to go with a techie Reader since I've never seen one in fanfiction before and techie girls need more love!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren has never had feelings for anyone so far, until he comes across you.
> 
> You attempt to find inspiration for your project.

“Four months. Has it really been that long?” Marco wondered out loud.

He was right. Over four months had passed since Sasha’s birthday, an eventful night that had ended with them all being drunk and hungover the next morning.

Since that night, things had never been the same. For one, Sasha and Connie had begun dating – after both of them had made elaborate plans to confess to each other and failed, yet somehow ended up together in true Springles style. The school also learned that Krista had a bitch persona that revealed itself when she was drunk, that Bertolt liked Annie, that Marco had the singing voice of a hungry cat and that Armin’s fabulousness rivalled Beyoncé’s, that Jean was capable of reaching memetic heights, that Principal Erwin Smith enjoyed trolling students and occasionally gossiped about them on Twitter. Oh, and that Levi and Hange may or may not have hooked up.

“It seems so hard to believe,” Armin mused. He dipped his mop into the bucket. “It feels like it was only yesterday we all made fools of ourselves at Sasha’s party. I still find pictures of me Photoshopped onto shampoo ads on Instagram.”

Jean groaned. “Ugh. I know how you feel. The whole ‘Horseface’ thing hasn’t died down yet either. Guess what this year’s most popular Halloween costume is predicted to be?”

“Well, that’s obvious,” Eren scoffed, waving his duster around. “It’s definitely Horseface! That’s the dumbest question ever.”

Everyone ignored him. It was not the first time Eren hadn’t gotten sarcasm.

“Hey guys!” Connie appeared, holding a pile of rags. “Still going?”

“Hey, Con,” Jean replied. “Yeah, we’re almost done, just waiting for Armin to finish mopping the floor. We were actually talking about the last time we were here together.”

Connie chuckled. “It’s been over four months now, hasn’t it? At least this time we’re on regular cleaning duty, not detention.”

“Yeah,” Marco nodded. “And hey, do you remember how we gave you advice on confessing to Sasha while we were all cleaning together? It’s weird how that worked out, right? I mean, you two are inseparable now!”

“Speaking of which, how are things going with Sasha?” said Armin. “It was your four-month anniversary on Sunday, wasn’t it?”

“Things are okay, I guess,” Connie shrugged. “I’m happy with her. We don’t really do things differently now than we did when we were friends, except make out sometimes. It’s kind of like a relationship upgrade – we went from being best friends to best friends who now make out occasionally.”

“Wow,” said Marco. He smiled slightly. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: you two are really lucky. It’s usually hard to upgrade your relationship from best friends to couple.” He sighed.

Connie and Armin narrowed their eyes at him.

“Why is it,” Eren said suddenly, “that every time we clean, we start talking about crushes and feelings? Is there something about cleaning that turns you guys into teenagers at a slumber party?”

“Technically, we _are_ teenagers who live together…” Marco murmured.

“And why is it,” Jean retorted, “that every time we talk about crushes and relationships you turn into the Tin Man from _The Wizard of Oz_?”

“Huh?” Eren blinked. “What do you mean?”

“He has a point,” Armin frowned. “Eren, why don’t you like talking about feelings? Or girls, for that matter? Or practically anything in the relationship department?”

“I –” Eren stared at the boys for a minute, his mouth open. He then snorted angrily. “Because it’s _stupid!_ Why would I waste my time talking about girls when I could be doing _literally anything else?”_

The boys exchanged glances. Marco nodded at Armin, who stepped forward and placed a hand on Eren’s shoulder.

“Eren,” he said gently, “Are you upset because you feel left out when we talk about relationships?”

“Of course not!” Eren replied with indignation. “Armin, are you insane? I don’t feel left out when you talk about that stuff! Trust me, there is nothing better than not talking about relationships and girls and sex –” He caught Armin’s stern glare and immediately felt small. “Okay, maybe I _do_ feel a teensy bit left out.”

“Well, that’s a surprise,” Jean said sarcastically. “The Tin Man has feelings. Who would’ve guessed it?”

“But Eren,” Marco said, shooting Jean a warning look, “have you really never liked anyone before? Not even a little crush?”

Eren turned red, uncomfortable with all the prying. He looked away. “Um. If the way you guys talk about it is anything to go by, then no. I don’t think I have.” He turned his attention back to the boys. “Do all of you really have someone you like?”

“Well,” Connie said, “I’m with Sasha, so…”

“You know how I feel about Mikasa,” Jean shrugged.

Marco blushed furiously. “Yeah. There is someone I like. Although it isn’t going to work out because they probably don’t feel the same way…”

“Wait, you like someone?” Jean interrupted, suddenly interested. “Marco, I’m your best friend! Why didn’t you tell me?”

Connie and Armin facepalmed.

“I have feelings for someone too,” Armin added shyly. “It’s a small crush and I don’t like to talk about it much. I’m sorry, Eren. I guess you’re in a minority here.”

Eren found himself getting angry, though he didn’t know what for. Yes, he knew that Connie and Sasha were dating. He didn’t care about what Jean thought of Mikasa and he didn’t want to. He was surprised to learn that Marco liked someone, but he was happy for him, even though it made him feel miserable.

But Armin? Armin, his best friend? Armin liked someone and he hadn’t known? Eren felt betrayed and confused and his feelings of being left out intensified.

What about the girls? Aside from Sasha, even he knew there was something going on between Ymir and Krista. At least, he was pretty sure Mikasa didn’t like anyone.

He wondered what it was about these stupid mushy feelings that made people act that way. It was probably something everyone went through at puberty, yet for whatever reason he seemed to have missed out.

Or had he?

“Okay, new question,” Eren turned his attention back to the boys. “What does it feel like to have a crush? Or, how did you guys realise that you liked someone?”

The other boys were silent as they pondered over Eren’s question.

“Well,” said Connie finally. “Not speaking for everyone, but I didn’t fall in love with Sasha at first sight. Our first meeting in that closet wasn’t exactly romantic. We were both starving, and the closet was dark and filled with cobwebs. Later, when I went to bed, I couldn’t sleep because I was still thinking about her. It was only when I remembered something she’d said and burst out laughing that I realised it. I – I liked her.”

“Hey, I remember that!” Armin piped up. “I remember you laughing out loud randomly in the middle of the night! And I remember thinking, _‘Wow, my new roommate is cray-cray!’”_

Connie shoved Armin playfully.

“I guess it’s different for everyone,” Jean said. “When I first saw Mikasa up-close – you remember, Yeager, it was the time we first moved in and were arguing over who got what side of the room and she walked in to check on you? I remember feeling like I’d been punched in the stomach. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. I also, uh,” he looked at his crotch. “I thought she was extremely hot. If you know what I mean.”

“Gross!” cried Connie.

“That,” Eren made a face and looked away, “makes me uncomfortable.”

“Same,” muttered Marco.

Armin turned towards him. “What about you, Marco? How did you realise you liked J- I mean, how did you realise you liked the person you have a crush on?”

Marco shrugged. “I’m friends with them, so I always knew. I feel this tiny flutter in my heart when I think about them.” He smiled softly to himself.

Jean shot Marco a confused look. “You say you’re always with them, yet I don’t see you hanging out with many people outside our group often.”

Armin and Connie groaned in exasperation.

“Okay, Armin,” Connie said, trying to change the subject. “You go.”

Armin’s face scrunched up. “I don’t really have much to say about this. All I’ll say is I enjoy their company and admire them a lot. I don’t really know how it began or how I figured it out, but I understand that feelings don’t work exactly the way you want them to.” He smiled sadly at Eren.

“Amen to that,” said Marco and Jean.

“Well,” Connie said. “Now that you know what it’s supposed to feel like, think about it. Have you felt this way about anyone yet?”

Eren shook his head. “To be honest – no, not really. Do you guys think I’ll find someone I like someday?”

Armin opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by someone cutting him off.

“Not if you spend cleaning time jabbering away like the floor’s going to clean itself, you won’t,” Levi Ackerman appeared behind the boys, holding the mop and wheeling along the bucket with it. “Same goes for the rest of you. Every time you five are tasked with cleaning, you end up talking and I end up picking up the slack. Tch.” He shook his head disdainfully.

No one said anything because Levi was right. This was not the first time Levi had caught them slacking off on the job. He was an upperclassman who sometimes helped with the cleaning, and the last time they’d been doing this, he was there, too.

“Also,” Levi had been holding two scrunched-up pieces of paper in his other hand and began unfolding one of them. “You brats may be shitty cleaners, but you’re even shittier artists. Like, seriously, Kirstein?”

He held up the first piece of paper. It was a charcoal drawing of Mikasa, with emphasis on her hair. “This is the worst drawing of Mika I’ve ever seen.”

“How did you know it was me who drew it?” yelped Jean.

“Also, _Mika?_ ” Armin repeated.

Levi snorted. “Be careful of what you throw in the trash. Like for example, this, Arlert.” He unfolded the second piece of paper and held it up for the boys to see.

It was a drawing of the Avengers, except that it wasn’t – it was their group as the Avengers. It was hard to tell who was who, but the boys could easily recognise Eren as the Hulk and Mikasa and Sasha as Black Widow and Scarlet Witch respectively.

“Also,” Levi added, “I’m sorry, Arlert, but there is no way in hell you are Thor.” He wadded up both pieces of paper and threw them into a nearby rubbish bin.

“What?” Armin cried. “But I’ve got the flowing blond hair and everything!”

“And why the fuck am I Vision?” said Connie indignantly. “Is it because I’m bald?”

Levi shook his head and walked away, drowning out the cries of the underclassmen as they began to argue among themselves.

***

You walked around the campus on Titan Academy. Autumn was ending but the trees on campus were still filled with rich brown and red leaves. A cold breeze blew over you. You shivered, wrapping your arms around yourself. You had elected not to wear the blazer that was part of your school’s winter uniform and were clearly paying for it now.

You walked towards the sports fields, muttering to yourself. “Health. Wellness. Fitness. Exercise.”

That was the theme for this year’s Ideathon – or, at least, a gist of the theme, which actually was “Your Body, Your Temple” (as lame as that sounded). The Ideathon was an annual contest that occurred around this time, open to teens aged between thirteen to eighteen. Organised by Stohess University, it involved creating a prototype of any kind of software, be it computer program, mobile application and so on that complied with the theme. The winning idea was awarded a cash prize and certificate, along with the chance to work alongside Stohess U’s brightest and best to create their software.

You sighed loudly as you walked towards the soccer field.

You had been participating in this contest every year since you were thirteen but had yet to receive any sort of recognition. Your idea had briefly made it to the Top 10 when you were fourteen, but that was the closest you had gotten to winning.

Although you had always participated in the contest for fun, you couldn’t deny that you had your reasons for wanting to win. The main one was that Stohess U was your dream university and winning a contest like this would look great on your application. Not to mention you enjoyed messing around with computer code and wanted to see if you were as good as you thought you were.

Also, the prize money was pretty sweet.

Unfortunately, coming up with ideas was harder than you thought. The contest was to take place at the end of the year, and it was now November. You had been thinking of ideas since the theme was announced three months ago. Inspiration had never been a problem for you before, but you were facing a major case of “developer’s block” this year. You had spent countless hours in the computer lab with your IT teacher, Mr Jarnach, but had yet to come up with anything that you could use.

You had also tried looking for inspiration in other places, such as attending the Archery Club, Kendo Club and Sumo Club meetings. Nothing.

You had decided today to check out the Soccer Club. Titan Academy’s Soccer Club was pretty good and had won their fair share of games this year. Maybe you could find something there that would help you with the contest?

You slipped into the bleachers quietly, your eyes on the field. The boys were using the goalpost closest to you so you had a good view of their practice.

The team manager, Nanaba, was leaning against the wall on the sidelines, scribbling furiously into a notebook. The players appeared to be practising shooting, with all of them lined up to take turns at shooting the ball into the goalpost, while the goalkeeper, Henning, tried to stop them.

Hmm. Maybe there was an idea there. Maybe you could come up with something that could work out an optimal formation to score, based on the players’ stats?

No way. That was a terrible idea. It had nothing to do with a healthy body or a sound mind, and you were pretty sure something like that already existed.

You continued to think. Your eyes wandered over the players. Two of them appeared to be arguing about something, while the rest continued to practice.

Huh. Was there any kind of software that improved teamwork and teammate relations? You didn’t think there was. There might be something you could work on there, using the Soccer Club as a reference.

Without warning, the ball flew in your direction, landing a few seats behind you. You immediately scampered up the bleachers to retrieve it.

“Thanks, [Name].” One of the players, Gelgar, was waving at you to get your attention. “Pass it back, will ya?”

You shot Gelgar a thumbs-up and placed the ball at your feet. Mustering as much power as you could, you kicked the ball hard.

The ball soared into the air. To your horror, it descended towards the team, hitting one of the players squarely in the stomach.

You gasped as the boy cried out in pain and collapsed on the grass.

***

Eren woke up in the infirmary with sore legs and a dull pain in his stomach.

He sighed. He had been in the infirmary plenty of times before and as recently as last week. He seemed to get injured more easily than anyone else on the team.

What was it this time? He closed his eyes and tried to remember.

_They were running shooting drills at practice. He was waiting in line for his turn, behind Floch, while watching his teammates shoot._

_Floch, meanwhile, was surveying the bleachers. Eren didn’t like Floch much nor was he friends with him, but unfortunately, he and Floch were often paired together during practice as they were the only first-years on the team. Floch was good, no doubt, but what annoyed Eren was that it was clear that his interests lay outside the soccer field, whereas Eren believed that there no was no point in being at soccer practice if your head wasn’t a 100% in the game._

_Take, for example, what Floch was currently doing._

_“Hey, Eren,” he said, nudging Eren in the side and pointing his elbow discreetly towards the bleachers. “Check it out. There’s a girl over there.”_

_Eren didn’t look. He was tired of Floch already. “So what?” he replied, in a bored voice. “Have you never seen a girl before?”_

_“Never at practice!” Floch insisted. “This is huge! A girl has never watched us practice before! Besides Nanaba, I mean. And that Mikasa chick who shows up here sometimes.”_

_Eren rolled his eyes. “Who cares?” he replied. “Your turn’s coming up soon. Pay attention.”_

_Floch ignored him. “I, for one, wouldn’t mind if she showed up every day. Picture this: she’s cheering for us, her legs are bare, her skirt’s flying so we can see her…”_

_Eren most certainly did_ not _want to ‘picture that’ and was tired of waiting for Floch to finish. “Shut your mouth, Floch,” he growled, “or I’ll shut it for you.”_

_Floch bristled. “What is your problem, Eren?” he said. “What do you have against hot chicks rooting for us during practice?”_

_Eren was about to tell Floch what he had against hot chicks, but before he could respond, the soccer ball flew towards him and hit him in the stomach._

_He groaned in pain as everything turned black._

Oh. That explained it. Stupid Floch. It was all his fault that Eren was here, of course. Eren wondered who was responsible for the ball hitting him.

He looked around, expecting to find one of the school nurses nearby. Instead, he was surprised to see a girl in the chair next to his bed. She appeared to have dozed off, with her head lolling to the side.

He knew this girl. It was [Name], who was in the same class as him. He didn’t know her very well. She was friends with Mikasa and sometimes spoke to Armin, but that was all he knew.

What was she doing next to his bed?

He leaned forward, careful not to strain his stomach or legs, and gently shook her shoulder. “Hey,” he whispered. “Wake up.”

[Name] woke up with a start and looked around frantically before her gaze rested on Eren.

She scrambled out of her chair, pushing his arm off her. “Um, Nurse?” she called, not taking her eyes off Eren. “Nurse Marlene? Eren’s awake!”

Eren heard footsteps as one of the school nurses, Marlene, appeared before him, a clipboard in her hand. “Hello, Eren,” she said dryly. “I would say it’s good to see you again, but that would be highly improper. How do you feel?”

“Better, I guess,” Eren shrugged. “My stomach hurts a bit, but it’s not that bad.”

Marlene pressed into his stomach, watching his reaction. He did not wince nor cry out in pain.

“Very good,” she said, satisfied. “I think you’re good to go. I just need you to sign here,” she handed him the clipboard and a pen and pointed to a spot on the bottom of the page.

“Oh, and you too, [Name],” she nodded at the girl next to him. “I’m going to need your signature as well.” She flipped the pages of the clipboard and handed [Name] the pen, while the girl quickly signed the form.

“Thanks, kids,” said Marlene. She checked the time on a clock. “I’m afraid it’s too late to get dinner tonight, but make sure you head straight to bed, alright? Especially you, Eren. I want you to take it easy tomorrow. That means no practice until the day after. Here,” she handed him a note. “Give this to Nanaba. And here,” she handed him a strip of pills. “This is just in case the pain flares up again. It should probably go away with a good night’s rest, though.”

She turned towards [Name]. “You’re fine to take him back to the dorms, then?”

[Name] nodded.

“Wait,” said Eren hastily. “There’s no need for that! I can walk to the dorms by myself!”

“Eren,” said Marlene sharply. “[Name] was with the Soccer Club when they brought you in earlier. She skipped dinner and sat in that chair all evening, waiting for you to wake up. Do _not_ patronise her by insisting you can walk by yourself when we all know you cannot. She is going to help you get back to the dorms, and I will _not_ hear a single peep from you about it. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” mumbled Eren. He felt bad for making [Name] go through all the trouble for him. While Eren usually felt annoyed when Mikasa worried about him, this time he only felt guilty.

“Very well, then. Have a good night, kids!” She walked away, leaving Eren and [Name] to fend for themselves.

“Um,” [Name] started. “Are you okay to stand, Eren?”

Eren scowled at her. “’Course,” he said shortly. He tried to climb out of bed and stand up, but his knees gave way and he collapsed onto the floor.

“Eren!” cried [Name]. “Are you okay? Does it hurt again? Should I call Nurse Marlene?”

Eren winced in pain. Swallowing his pride, he slowly held his hand out to her. “I – could you please help me up?” he said, in a small voice.

[Name] immediately grabbed Eren’s hand and pulled him up. Eren knew he was heavy, but [Name] was surprisingly strong. He could tell by the pain in his knees that there was no way he was making it back to the dorms without help.

“Are you –” he began, before taking a deep breath to start again. “Could you please help me get back to the dorms? Is that okay?”

“Of course it is,” said [Name]. She frowned and added, “But, um, how do we go about it?”

He placed his arm around her shoulders. “Put your arm around me,” he whispered.

“Like this?” she said softly, wrapping her arm around his waist, causing him to lean towards her and reduce the load on his knees.

He found it hard to stop himself from turning red. This was the most physical contact he’d ever had with a girl, save for his mother and Mikasa, which didn’t count. In contrast, [Name] did not look embarrassed at all, and, in fact, looked like she lifted boys like him every day.

“Yes,” he whispered again. Something about the whole thing felt extremely intimate, and he couldn’t help but whisper.

She gave him a determined nod, and they made their way out of the room and towards the elevators, with Eren hobbling and [Name] doing her best to support him.

While the two waited in silence for the elevator, Eren finally decided to speak up. “I’m sorry –”

“I’m sorry!” blurted out [Name].

A loud ‘ding’ indicated that the elevator had arrived.

Eren waited until [Name] had helped him into the elevator before saying. “You go first.”

[Name] took a deep breath and said, “I’m so sorry, Eren. I was the one who kicked the ball that hit you. I felt so bad for knocking you out, I had to come here with the team to make sure you were gonna be okay. I waited until you woke up, so I could apologise in person.”

“That was you?” Eren gave her the once-over, officially impressed. “Damn. You’ve got legs!”

It took him five seconds to realise what he just said. “Sorry! That sounded wrong! What I meant to say was, your legs are…uh…your kick…your power is…uh…”

[Name] giggled softly, using one hand to cover her mouth while her other hand supported his waist to haul him out of the building.

This embarrassed Eren even further and he ended up saying, “Um – what I wanted to say was, I’m sorry for taking so long to wake up and making you wait for me! I’m sorry for making you miss dinner!”

[Name] shook her head. “That’s okay, Eren. It’s not your fault I knocked you out.” She sighed. “Well. Today was a complete bust.”

They walked slowly down the cobblestone path that led to Titan Academy’s living area. “Uh,” Eren started, “if you don’t mind me asking, what were you doing at the soccer field today? Were you watching someone play?”

[Name] sighed again. “Well. No. Not exactly. See, I want to take part in this contest that’s gonna take place at the end of the year, and I need to come up with some sort of software that can promote health and fitness. I’m having a hard time coming up with ideas, so I thought I’d check out the Soccer Club to see if anything inspired me.”

“That’s cool,” said Eren. “Did anything inspire you, then?”

[Name] just shrugged.

He nodded at her, encouraging her to speak. “Tell me more.”

“Um, well” she continued, “the contest is organised by Stohess U, and I really wanna win because it’ll look great on my application when I apply there later. Also, I want to become a software developer when I grow up, so I thought it’d be the best way to get there.”

When Eren remained silent, she spoke again. “It’s stupid, I know.”

“It’s not stupid,” Eren replied. “It’s great that you've thought about your future already. I don’t know you very well, but you seem smart. I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”

[Name] smiled. “Thanks, Eren.”

He felt his stomach leap.

He saw her shiver slightly and noticed she wasn’t wearing a coat. “I’m sorry,” he said lamely. “You’re cold, and I…I…you’re cold because you’re helping me, and…”

“Eren, it’s fine, really,” she insisted. She stopped next to a bench. “Do you mind if I put you down here? I just need to switch arms for a bit.”

He nodded and allowed her to set him down on the bench. When she was ready, he tried to stand up. Again, his knees began to wobble and his calves hurt, but he fought the pain and stood up proudly.

“Eren,” said [Name] slowly, as she draped his hand over her shoulders and wrapped her other arm around his waist. “I’m sorry if this sounds dumb, but – why do your legs hurt if the ball hit you in the stomach? Did you injure yourself before that? Is it something else that strained your legs?”

“Oh,” said Eren. “Yeah. Probably. You know Henning?”

“Your goalkeeper?” she frowned. “The big guy that looks like John Cena and Machoke had a baby? What about him?”

Eren snorted. “Well, he’s been following this new training regimen,” he explained. “He got it off the internet. It’s supposedly followed by the pros and stuff. So, I tried to get in on it too. But,” he paused, “of course I had to be better than him, so I doubled the amount of exercise I had to do.”

“You did what?” [Name]’s eyes widened in shock. “Eren, I don’t know anything about soccer, but that sounds really dangerous!”

He scowled and looked away. [Name] was starting to sound a lot like Mikasa and he didn’t want to resent her for it.

“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “Henning’s doing it, so why can’t I? Besides, I’ve never actually completed the whole thing. I usually stop halfway through because I’m too exhausted to go on.”

[Name]’s eyes were so wide that they were threatening to pop out of her skull.

He could tell what she was thinking. Henning was a big guy, he wasn’t, and he was attempting to do more than what professional players did, blah blah blah. The usual drivel he got from Mikasa.

“Again, I don’t know much about soccer,” she said. “But I don’t think the same training regimen would suit everyone, would it?”

Eren shrugged. “You’re right. A lot of things are considered when designing a regimen – your height, weight, dietary requirements, experience etc. But a lot of coaches usually don’t have the time or ability to make up one for each player, so they recommend the same program to everyone. That’s why I decided to design my own.”

“And following a program not suited to you can cause injuries and leave you unable to walk,” [Name] said slowly. “That’s it!”

“What’s what?” asked Eren. They were finally in front of the boy’s dormitory. [Name] led Eren into the building, past the reception and straight into the student lounge.

“I think you may have just given me an idea for the contest,” she grinned. “Thanks, Eren. You’ve been a big help! Maybe this day wasn’t a complete bust after all!”

“You’re welcome?” said Eren uncertainly, not sure of how he had helped. His stomach leapt again. He spotted his friends at one of the ping-pong tables (well, his friends and that douche Kirstein who hung around them), where an intense match was currently taking place between Jean and Armin. “You can leave me here, thanks. My friends are over there.”

“No problem,” said [Name], setting him down on one of the couches. She gazed at him, like she wanted to say something. Finally, she took a deep breath and said, “Listen, Eren, can you promise me something?”

He stared at her, suddenly nervous of what she was going to say. “What?”

“Promise me you’ll stop following that ridiculous training regimen,” she said firmly. “Or, at least, promise me you’ll only follow the original program – not the extra stuff you’ve been doing.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. “Please, Eren! Or I’ll have to come up to the infirmary every evening to walk you here!”

He laughed. “Okay, you win. I promise I won’t overdo it.” He smiled at her softly, grateful for her presence that evening. “Thanks for everything, [Name]. See you around.”

“Good night, Eren,” she smiled at him one last time before walking out of the student lounge.

He watched her walk away, still smiling. His insides had been doing tumbling exercises for a while now and he didn’t know why.

“Eren!” He turned around to find Marco and Connie waving at him from the ping-pong tables.

“Coming!” He stood up and limped towards them before collapsing on the couch they were sitting on.

“Man,” said Marco sympathetically. “I guess you injured yourself today too, huh?”

“Yeah,” Eren said. “Had to miss dinner again. Oh well.” He shrugged and leaned back, watching the two boys play.

“Was that [Name] you were talking to?” said Connie. “It’s weird seeing you around girls that aren’t Mikasa.”

“Yeah,” Eren smiled. “[Name]. My legs are sore, so she helped me walk here from the infirmary.”

“Okay, but why?” questioned Marco. “What was she doing at the infirmary in the first place?”

Eren shrugged again. “Eh. Long story.”

“Well, okay,” said Marco. He turned his attention back to the game. “She seems nice. I don’t know her too well, though.”

Eren remembered the look of worry on her face when he had collapsed on the infirmary floor. He remembered her asking him to quit his training regimen.

“She _is_ nice,” he replied. “She’s really kind.”

He felt his face flare up and his heart hammer against his chest. Well. That was weird.

“She’s friends with Sasha,” Connie added. “From what I’ve heard, she’s really into tech.”

He remembered her talking about how she wanted to win some computer competition to get into Stohess University. He was suddenly filled with a surge of admiration for [Name].

“Yeah, she’s really smart,” he replied, before he could stop himself. “She likes computer programming and stuff like that. She’s probably good at it, too.”

His insides lurched again. What was wrong with him? He felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. Aside from the fact that he literally had been punched with a soccer ball, a few hours ago, this was different. He felt like his guts were churning into butter and his heart was pounding so hard it threatened to break his ribcage.

“Eren,” he turned around and found Marco and Connie giving him strange looks. “You okay there?”

He grinned widely at them. “Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”

A random image suddenly popped into his head. John Cena was beaming proudly at the Pokémon Machoke, who was sitting up in a hospital bed holding a baby. The baby had Henning’s face.

He burst out laughing loudly. Marco and Connie raised their eyebrows. Even Armin and Jean stopped their match to stare at him.

He saw Armin turn towards Jean and mouth, _“Cray-cray!”_

Eren laughed for a whole minute before turning back to the boys. “Sorry. Just something [Name] said earlier.”

“What was it?” asked Jean.

Eren didn’t want to share the joke with them. They probably wouldn’t find it funny, anyway. “Eh. You had to be there.”

“Oh-kay,” Jean exchanged glances with Marco.

“Aside from ‘that’,” Connie started, “whatever ‘that’ was, Eren, you’ve been acting really weird.”

Eren chuckled to himself. “Weird? Weird how?”

“Wellllll,” Marco sang, as he, Connie, Armin and Jean all walked towards Eren so that they were circling him. “For one, _you have not stopped smiling since [Name] left.”_

Eren immediately twisted his face back to its usual look of indifference. “That’s not true.”

He saw the boys grinning at him like maniacs. “What?” he said, annoyed. “Now _you’re_ the ones who are acting weird.”

Connie turned towards Jean. “How long until he gets it?”

Jean shrugged. “I say fifteen minutes. He’s not exactly bright.’

Eren’s annoyance increased. He felt confused and helpless, like he always did whenever his friends spoke about their love lives.

“Hey, that’s not very nice,” Armin said. Eren was glad Armin was sticking up for him, until Armin added. “I say one minute. Fifteen is _way_ too long.”

“My money’s on five minutes,” Marco piped up. “He looks so lost. He clearly has no idea what’s going on.”

“But it’s so obvious!” wailed Connie. “Thirty seconds should be more than enough!”

What in Sheena’s name were they talking about? Was this because he was laughing at what [Name] had said? But then –

Shit.

He remembered his conversation with the boys earlier that week.

_“How did you guys realise that you liked someone?” he had asked._

_“I admire them a lot,” Armin had said._

_“I feel a tiny flutter in my heart when I think about them,” Marco had said._

_“I remember feeling like I’d been punched in the stomach,” Kirstein had said._

_“It was only when I remembered something she’d said and burst out laughing that I realised it. I – I liked her,” Connie had said._

Holy shit.

“Oh Maria,” Eren whispered.

“Yasss!” said Connie, punching the air in triumph. “He got it! I win! Pay up, boys, pay up!”

“Oh Rose,” Eren whispered.

“That’s not fair!” Armin cried. “That was well over thirty seconds! This is a conspiracy!”

“Oh Sheena,” Eren whispered.

Jean and Marco begrudgingly dug into Armin’s pockets for loose notes to give Connie, while Armin continued to protest. They all turned towards Eren and grinned at him in anticipation, waiting for him to finish.

“Our boy’s got it,” said Connie excitedly. “I repeat, _our boy Eren has got it!”_

Marco nodded at Eren. “Well?” he said. “Say it, Eren. We’re all waiting!”

Eren turned to the boys, shock clearly written on his face.

“I…I…” he whispered. “I think I…”

“Spit it out, Yeager!” Jean said.

“I THINK I LEFT MY SOCCER KIT IN THE LOCKER ROOM!” Eren blurted out.

The boys groaned loudly. They collapsed dramatically on the couch next to him.

“Could I have my money back now?” Armin pleaded.

“Oh, and I’m pretty sure I have a crush on [Name],” Eren added. “But yeah. Could someone get my soccer kit back for me?”

***

**TITAN TIMES**

**November 3**

| 

**Issue 775**  
  
---|---  
  
**ASK SONNY AND BEAN**

_Hey there, Titans! Is school stressing you out? Are you having trouble with your friends? Do you need advice on that special someone? Has your body been going through changes? Well, you’ve come to the right place! We’re Sonny and Bean, and we’re here to answer any questions you have about high school life! So, feel free to ask us anything – and we do mean anything – and we’ll answer your questions every week, right here, on the Titan Times!_

**To ask us a question: email us at** [ **asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd** ](mailto:asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd)

Today’s featured questions:

_Hey Sonny and Bean,_

_I’m sixteen years old, but I’m so inexperienced at everything. Some of my friends have girlfriends and others have people they like. And there’s me – I’ve never even had a crush on anyone! How do I fix this?_

_Never Been Kissed_

Greetings, Never Been Kissed!

Here’s the cool thing about life: everything moves at its own pace. That includes your friends, their girlfriends, you and your body. This means that everyone goes through different stages of life at different times. You may not have had feelings for anyone yet, and that’s completely okay! As long as you realise that matters of the heart can’t be forced, you’ll be alright. And who knows? You might meet someone you like tomorrow! Or you might realise that you don’t feel attracted to anyone. The important thing is to grow up at your own time and discover these things for yourself!

Love, Sonny and Bean

_Hi Sonny! Hi Bean!_

_So, I’m taking part in this contest soon, but I’m having a really hard time coming up with ideas. I’ve looked everywhere for inspiration, nothing’s working! What’s the best way to come up with ideas?_

_Uninspired_

Greetings, Uninspired!

We’ve all been there before. Writer’s block, artist’s block, missing your muse – call it what you want, it definitely sucks. The good thing is that it doesn’t last forever and there are plenty of ways to overcome it.

Here are our top tips to finding inspiration:

  * Try something new: You’ve probably been doing what you usually do to get inspired, and it obviously isn’t helping. Now’s a good time to try something new, something different. Maybe pick up a new hobby? Watch something you never would’ve considered watching? Read a book? If not inspiration, you might discover something you really enjoy doing!



  * Talk to people: Bounce ideas off family, friends, people with the same interests and strangers. Everyone you talk to brings a fresh new perspective on your work and could help you see things in a different way.



  * Change in scenery: It’s possible that you’ve been stuck in a rut and the routine probably isn’t helping. Try mixing things up. If you get a chance, get out of school on the weekend and go somewhere you haven’t been to in a while. There are plenty of places within campus you could go to as well. I’ve been told the roof of the girls’ dorm has a great view.



  * Take a break: Remember to be kind to yourself and give yourself a break once in a while! It might be just the thing that gets your creative juices flowing again!



Love, Sonny and Bean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY SHIT. Eren's left his soccer kit in the locker room! Oh, and he also likes you. BUT THE SOCCER KIT!
> 
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! I'd love to know what you guys thought of this chapter!
> 
> For further reference, Armin's Avengers:
> 
> • Eren: Hulk  
> • Mikasa: Black Widow  
> • Armin: Thor  
> • Jean: Iron Man  
> • Marco: Captain America  
> • Sasha: Scarlet Witch  
> • Connie: Vision


	2. Community Support

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren tells the others about his crush. You're feeling left out when everyone seems to know something you don't.

The atmosphere in the student lounge was oddly relaxed.

To be fair, this was what Friday nights at Titan Academy were usually like. When they weren’t hanging out with the girls, the boys would convene at the student lounge after dinner to play ping-pong or Xbox, watch TV, do homework, talk or whatever it was they felt like doing. And tonight was no different. Marco and Jean were at the ping-pong table, lazily passing the ball to each other. Connie was slumped on the couch, furiously typing away on his phone. Armin was reading a book next to him. Eren sat on the other side of Armin, watching the highlights of a soccer game on the television with minor interest.

Everyone could feel the tension in the air – the kind that sometimes lingered after a startling announcement had been made last week and said announcer refused to talk about it since then. Marco and Jean were constantly grimacing at each other, their eyes occasionally drifting towards Eren. Connie and Armin exchanged glances, only to look away.

Eren continued to frown at the TV, blissfully unaware of the tension in the air.

Finally, Jean decided that enough was enough. He slammed his paddle on the ping-pong table and barked, “Yeager!”

“Yeager” jumped up with a start. He rubbed his eyes and sighed. “What?” he said.

Marco, Connie and Armin looked up with interest.

“Aren’t you going to talk about it?” asked Jean, walking over to where Eren was sitting and folding his arms over his chest.

Eren’s eyes flickered over to the television, before turning back to Jean. “Talk about _what?_ ”

“What do you mean, what?” Jean said indignantly. “Last week you said you had a crush on [Name], then you made us all promise to keep it a secret and then you stopped talking about it altogether!”

Eren smiled at the mention of [Name] and blinked at Jean. “And?”

“And? _And?_ ” Jean said incredulously. “You can’t just say stuff like that and not elaborate! We need details!”

“Now, hang on, Jean,” said Armin hastily, ever on Eren’s side, “if Eren doesn’t want to talk about it, then –”

“Come on, Armin,” Connie said. “We know you’re curious too.”

“I’m not!” Armin yelped. He turned towards Marco helplessly. “Tell them to stop prying!”

Marco shrugged. “Gotta admit, I’m dying to know too.”

“Marco! Not you too!” Armin cried.

“Well,” said Jean. “There you have it. Three against one.” He dragged one of the chairs towards the couch where the boys were sitting and settled down on it. “So come on, Yeager. Spill.”

Eren was usually the last person on earth to talk about his feelings, the last person to talk about girls and the last person to talk to _Jean_ about them. He had initially forbidden the boys from discussing it with anyone else. He didn’t need Connie and Sasha or Armin and Mikasa talking about him and his feelings behind his back – or worse, [Name] finding out how he felt about her. He had managed one decent conversation with her so far, and he very much wanted to have more, without any sort of weirdness getting between them.

But the sensations he’d been feeling for the past week had been driving him crazy, and he wanted – no, _needed_ – to talk to someone about them.

Armin. Mikasa. Marco. Connie. Sasha. And Jean, as much as he hated to admit it. They were his friends. They cared about him. He could trust them not to say anything to [Name].

“Fine,” Eren rolled his eyes. “What do you want to know?”

“Well, for starters, just – how? Last week, you were complaining that we always spoke about feelings and you had never had a crush on anyone, and now you have a major one on [Name]. _How?_ ” Armin spoke so fast that he ran out of breath.

The boys looked at him with disgust.

“What?” he said. “I’m allowed to be curious, too.”

“Mr Hypocrite here’s right,” Jean said. “Like, how do you go from being Tin Man to having a crush on a girl you’ve never spoken to before? I guess it does happen, but…”

Eren smiled softly. He then proceeded to fill the boys in on what happened last week, right from the ball hitting him in the stomach to his conversation with [Name] on the way back.

Connie and Marco whooped loudly, while Armin smiled softly. Jean, meanwhile, clutched his stomach dramatically.

“Ugh,” he complained. “The day has finally come. Yeager has managed to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. _Ughhhh._ ”

“If that isn’t the sweetest thing I’ve heard all day,” Marco said. “And it isn’t, because I heard Krista talk about her pet bunny during lunch, but it might be a close second.”

“I didn’t realise that [Name] was the reason you stopped doing that ridiculous workout,” Armin looked impressed. “You and Mikasa have been friends for seven years, and she couldn’t get you to stop. And [Name] manages on the first time try.” He grinned at the boys. “Guys, I think [Name] might actually be the one for him.”

Normally, Eren would’ve scoffed at Armin for saying something so outrageous, but now he couldn’t help but smile. “Well, it doesn’t matter, because what I said before still stands. She is _not_ finding out about this.”

“Wait, for real?” Jean said. “You mean you aren’t going to do anything about it?”

Eren rolled his eyes. “And what do you want me to do about it?”

“I don’t know, tell her how you feel?” Jean shrugged. “Ask her out maybe?”

“Right, Jean. Because that worked out _so well_ for you and Mikasa,” Connie added snidely. Armin and Marco giggled.

“No,” Eren said shortly. “Look, I was happy before her. I don’t need to ruin things by asking her out. Got it?”

“Eren, but –”

“I’m telling you guys because I trust you not to say anything,” he added. He gave each of them a stern glare, starting with Jean and ending with Connie. “We clear?”

The boys nodded begrudgingly. Connie, meanwhile, was holding his phone in both hands, looking like he was dying to say something.

“What?” Eren said.

“He wants to tell Sasha,” Armin said. Connie nodded furiously.

Eren considered it and shrugged. “Whatever. As long as [Name] doesn’t find out, I don’t really care.”

Connie breathed out, looking visibly relieved. “Thanks, Eren! The whole thing was killing me inside. This is the longest I’ve kept a secret from Sasha since we started dating.”

Eren just shrugged again.

“Oh, and,” Connie grinned sheepishly. He pointed at his phone. “Don’t get mad, but I may have also told her hours ago…”

“You _WHAT?_ ”

***

“Alright, girls,” Sasha poured the last of the _sakura_ -flavoured _sake_ into a champagne flute and handed it to you. She raised her own glass. “What are we toasting to tonight?”

Krista raised her glass. “I’ll go first. To our first sake slumber party, and many more to come. To friendship. To girl power. Oh, and to world peace!”

“Pretty sure you’re supposed to toast to only one thing,” Mikasa said.

“To YumiKuri!” Ymir declared loudly, glaring at Mikasa. “And to letting Krista toast to as many things as she likes.”

“That’s a good one!” Sasha said happily. “I’ll go next. To four months of Springles!”

Everyone blinked at her. “I’m sorry, what?” said Ymir.

“Uh,” Sasha rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed that the ship name had not caught on yet. “I meant, to four months of Connie and me going out!”

Mikasa raised her glass. “To Eren finally quitting that dumb Saitama training thing he was doing.”

You smiled softly to yourself, happy to learn that Eren had kept his promise and was not overtraining anymore.

Your best friend and roommate, Mina Carolina, raised her glass. “To [Name]’s first ever sleepover with us.”

It was your turn next. You thought of all the good things that had happened to you recently: your conversation with Eren, finding inspiration for your project and finally being able to work on it. Actually being able to attend one of the girls’ slumber parties for a change. “To new friends and new ideas,” you said, raising your glass to meet everyone else’s.

“Cheers!” You all clinked your glasses together and took a sip.

“I’m glad you’re here, though, [Name],” Sasha said. “It’s _so_ hard getting you to come to anything we plan! Do you know how upset I was when I heard you couldn’t come to my birthday party earlier this year?”

“Hey, I couldn’t help it!” you whined. “I had the flu! Don’t you think I would’ve rather been at the most epic party of the year than at the infirmary?”

“You missed one hell of a party, though,” Ymir said, downing the rest of her drink in one gulp.

“I, for one, am glad she wasn’t there,” Krista shuddered as she remembered the events of that night.

Ymir smirked. “Whatever you say, Bitch Krista.”

Krista punched her in the arm playfully.

You smiled sadly. Their talk about Sasha’s party was making you feel a little left out.

“[Name]’s always had bad luck with everything, I’ve noticed” Mina shrugged. “Case in point: we have tons of slumber parties and she can’t come because she _always_ has something else going on. Sasha throws an epic party, and she has the flu. She takes part in a major competition, and, for the first time in years, she can’t come up with ideas.”

“I’m making progress with the contest!” you added defensively. “As for the parties, I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“Wait, what’s this about a contest?” Ymir asked.

You quickly filled them in on the Ideathon and your quest for inspiration, as well as your dream to get into Stohess U.

“That’s amazing, [Name],” Krista said admirably. “And I know that you’ll win this! You said you were making progress with the contest, right?”

“Yeah, I got some ideas from, uh, watching the Soccer Club practice and talking to a member,” you said. You debated whether you should mention hitting Eren on the stomach with the ball. You knew how Mikasa felt about him and how scary she was. On one hand, she might kill you for injuring him. On the other hand – nope, there was no other hand. She was definitely going to kill you.

But Mikasa had already leaned in at the mention of the Soccer Club and was waiting for you to go on.

You sighed and began telling the girls about your encounter with the Soccer Club last week. Halfway through your story, Sasha gasped loudly.

You frowned. You had gotten way past the part where you kicked the ball at Eren and were now describing your conversation as you walked him back to the dorm. What exactly was Sasha so shocked about?

“Oh. My. Potatoes.” she whispered.

Then you realised that Sasha was staring at her phone and not at you. She had evidently been texting the entire time.

“What’s wrong, Sasha?” Krista asked in concern.

“Nothing! It’s nothing!” She looked up to meet your eyes and immediately looked away.

“It was most definitely _not_ nothing,” said Ymir, squinting at Sasha suspiciously. “Care to share with the class?”

“Uh, maybe later,” Sasha said, in an unnaturally high voice. “I wouldn’t want to interrupt [Name]’s story about…about…uh…” She looked at Mina helplessly.

You sighed. “I was talking about the Soccer Club, actually. How talking to Eren Yeager about his training regime…”

Sasha’s face turned purple. She looked like she was caught between wanting to say something and trying not to laugh out loud. You saw her exchange glances with all of the girls except you.

“…helped me come up with an idea.” you finished lamely when you realised no one was listening anymore and were more interested in what was going on with Sasha.

“It’s okay, Sasha,” you sighed again. The jealousy and feelings of being left out were hitting you hard and you were trying your best not to let it show. You forced a smile. “You can say what you wanted to. I’ll finish my story later.”

“No, no, it’s fine!” Sasha squeaked. “Finish your story. This isn’t important. Nothing. Not a big deal. Not a life-changing event or anything!” At this point she burst out laughing.

Everyone else exchanged glances, either curious to know what was going on with Sasha or worried that she was going mad.

You finally realised what was happening. Sasha had something to say to the others, and it was something about _you_ – which was why she couldn’t meet your eyes but kept exchanging weird glances with everyone else.

What could it be? Did she think your _Pokémon_ t-shirt was weird? Was she judging your _No Name_ phone case? Was there _nori_ between your teeth?

But this was Sasha you were talking about. One of the most friendly, non-judgemental people you knew. She was currently wearing a sweater with cartoon potatoes on it, was a big fan of the band No Name herself and was the person most likely to have nori between their teeth in your class.

So, what was it?

You thought hard. The right thing to do would be to leave the room and let them talk about you in peace. You could even go to the bathroom to make sure you didn’t _actually_ have nori between your teeth.

Or, you could continue sitting there, letting the uncomfortable silence linger.

It was clear that Sasha _desperately_ wanted to talk about something without you around. You sighed yet again. You weren’t so petty as to deny her the opportunity.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” you mumbled, standing up suddenly. “Be right back.”

***

As soon as [Name] left the room, Sasha let out a breath she’d been holding for the longest time. “Oh, man. I’m so glad she left! That was torture!”

“Now can you tell us what’s going on?” said Ymir, annoyed.

“Yeah,” said Mina crossly. “You better have good reason for speaking behind [Name]’s back like this.”

“Oh, trust me, I do,” Sasha said, an evil grin spreading on her face, not unlike the ones her cousin Hange usually wore. “This is _gold_.”

Everyone looked at her expectantly.

“But first,” Sasha grabbed the bottle of _Yuzushu_ next to her and quickly unscrewed the cap off. She poured it into Mikasa’s glass and handed it to her. “Mikasa, I’m going to need you to drink this.”

“Why?” asked Mikasa.

“Trust me,” Sasha said firmly.

Mikasa hesitantly took the glass from Sasha and downed it in one gulp.

“Have another,” Sasha handed Mikasa another full glass and watched her drink the whole thing.

“Sasha, you’re scaring me,” said Krista. “Is there something going on with Mikasa? And what does this have to do with [Name]?”

“Yeah, spill it already, would you?” said Ymir, “She’s going to back any minute.”

“I will, I will, I swear,” Sasha said. “But first, you all have to promise me you won’t freak out. Especially you, Mikasa.”

“Done,” said Mina. Krista and Ymir both held up their hands in agreement.

Mikasa, who was already a bit tipsy, waved her hand dismissively in Sasha’s face. “I’m cool, I swear,” she insisted. “All good!”

“Okay, here goes,” Sasha leaned in and whispered excitedly, “Guys, _Eren likes [Name]!_ ”

“What?” said Ymir.

“What?” said Krista.

“What???” said Mina.

“WHAT???” said Mikasa.

“Guys, you promised!” cried Sasha.

“Okay, I’m calm,” Mina took a deep breath. She nodded at Ymir and Krista. “We’re calm. Right?”

“We’re calm,” mumbled Ymir and Krista.

Mikasa, meanwhile, was still in shock. “Excuse me?”

“Mikasa…” Sasha warned.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “But just – why?”

“Yeah,” said Mina. “Like, what the hell? _Eren?_ How did you find out?”

Sasha pointed at her phone. “He told Connie, who told me.”

Ymir looked at the others warily. “Are – are you sure he said Eren? Not, like, Reiner or anyone else?”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “Do you really expect me to mix up Reiner and Eren?”

“It’s just…” Ymir maintained. “Eren is _not_ who I’d expect to like someone.”

“Well, it had to happen eventually,” Krista shrugged.

“But why not me?” Mikasa whined, in a high voice very unlike her. “What’s wrong with me?”

Everyone ignored her.

“They don’t even know each other that well,” Mina mused. “I mean, [Name]’s only spoken to him _once_. She was literally just telling us about it…”

“I know!” Sasha exclaimed. “Do you know how hard it was keeping quiet about this in front of her? Right when she was talking about him?”

“Do we have to keep this from her, though?” Mina asked. “I mean, why can’t she know?”

Sasha shrugged. “Dunno. Connie said that Eren doesn’t want her to know.” She quickly scrolled through her texts, then turned back to the group. “Well, technically he doesn’t want anyone to know, but you guys can keep a secret, right?”

“Oh, yes, definitely,” said Ymir and Krista. “You can count on us.”

Mina frowned. “She’s my best friend. I wouldn’t want to keep something like this from her.”

“Look,” Ymir said. “If [Name]’s as unlucky as you say she is, it’s best for her to not know. I mean, we don’t want her screwing things up, do we?”

Mina sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I can totally see her being all weird about it and ruining his chance of asking her out.” She shot a sideways glance at Sasha. “He _is_ going to ask her out, right?”

“He better not,” Mikasa said.

Sasha sighed. “Connie said he doesn’t want to,” she replied.

“What, why not?” asked Ymir.

“I dunno,” she shrugged. “He was really insistent about it, apparently. Maybe he thinks she won’t like him that way?”

“Do we know for sure that she doesn’t like him that way?” asked Krista. “Like, what if she likes him too, but hasn’t told anyone? What if by not telling [Name] about Eren’s crush on her, we’re getting in the way of what is clearly meant to be an epic romance?”

Mikasa scoffed loudly, while the rest of them shook their heads.

“No way,” objected Mina. “If [Name] liked Eren, she would’ve told me about it. She’s told me about her crushes before, like the time she had a crush on that one third-year who hangs around your cousin.”

The group sat in silence. All of them were in deep thought, trying to process everything they had just learned, except for Mikasa, who was pouting by herself.

“You know,” said Krista slowly. “Just because Eren doesn’t want to ask her out, doesn’t mean _we_ can’t do anything about it…”

“Krista!” Mina was shocked at what she was implying.

“Hang on, she’s right,” said Sasha. “Why can’t _we_ set them up?”

“Well, for starters, this is never going to work out,” said Mikasa. She poured herself another helping of sake. “Eren and [Name] are total opposites. He’s really into soccer. How much does [Name] know about sports?”

“Um,” said Mina. “She did really well in PE last week…”

“Also, Eren is always getting into trouble and needs someone strong and responsible to take care of him,” Mikasa continued.

“Mikasa,” Ymir said. “[Name] _literally_ just told us about how she watched over him in the hospital and carried him back to his dorm.”

“Besides,” Mikasa went on. “You don’t even know how she feels about Eren. For all we know, [Name] might not like him that way. You can’t force her to fall for him.”

“Well,” Krista said. “You’re not wrong. But we’re Eren and [Name]’s friends. Aren’t we morally obligated to help them find happiness? And what if they’re meant to be happy with each other and we’re preventing it by not helping them get together?”

“Let me repeat what I just said,” Mikasa replied. “[Name] might not be into men. She might not be attracted to Eren. There are a million other things that could go wrong here.”

“Fortunately, this stuff is easy to find out.” Sasha grinned at the group. “I have an idea of how we can ask her and I need you guys to follow my lead.” She gave each one of them a determined nod. “Are we all agreed then? We’re setting up Eren and [Name]. If [Name] likes him back…”

“Game, set and match,” smirked Ymir.

“And if she doesn’t?” Mikasa asked.

“We have to get her to see what a great guy he is before we give up completely,” Sasha insisted. “We can’t give up that easily!”

“Sasha…” said Mikasa, sounding betrayed.

“I’m sorry, Mikasa,” said Sasha sympathetically. “You’re my friend, but Eren and [Name] are my friends, too. I owe it to Eren to help him find happiness with the girl he likes. Don’t you want him to be happy, too?”

Mikasa looked away, saying nothing.

“Then it’s settled,” said Sasha. “We’re going to get Eren and [Name] together. And we’re going to begin by finding out if she likes him back.”

“Let’s do this, then,” said Ymir, placing her hand before the others. Everyone except Mikasa rested their hands on the hand stack, before breaking up in a loud _whoop_.

You chose that moment to enter the room. “Oh,” you said, taking note of the girls’ smiling faces, except for Mikasa, who had her usual deadpan on. Clearly you had been left out of something fun again.

It stung you, but you forced a smile instead. “What did I miss?”

“Oh, uh…” Sasha glanced around at the others. “We were just…playing Truth or Dare!”

You stared at her, unconvinced. “You were playing Truth or Dare.”

“Yes,” she replied.

“And you started playing without me?”

“Your fault for taking too long in the bathroom,” Ymir muttered.

“Y _mir_!” Krista hissed.

“What? It’s true!”

You nodded sourly, not ready to give in yet. “So, what was the hand stack for?”

“Um…I dared Ymir to do a hand stack!” blurted Mina.

Now Mina was part of this too? If she was going to betray you like this, she had better have a good reason for doing so. You made a mental note to ask her what Sasha had said after you left the room.

“Really, Mina?” you rolled your eyes, pretending to play along. “With all of the savage stuff you usually come up with, _that’s_ the best you could think of? A hand stack?”

“And speaking of which!” Sasha clapped her hands, trying to get your attention. “[Name], it’s your turn! Truth or dare?”

“Um, dare I guess?” You shrugged.

“Oh. Crap. Didn’t expect you to pick dare.” Sasha frowned. “Okay, then, um, I dare you to pick truth!”

Ymir glared at Sasha. “I think what Sasha meant to say was, we’re playing Truth or Truth. Not Truth or Dare.”

“Truth or Truth?” you repeated.

“Yeah!” Krista nodded furiously. “It’s a, um, version of Truth or Dare where you only pick truth all the time!”

“But,” you mumbled, “How did Mina dare Ymir to…ah, you know what, I don’t even care anymore. Fine. Go on, then. Let’s play.”

“So, [Name], truth, is it?” said Sasha. She grinned gleefully.

“Uh…” you studied the faces of everyone around you. What exactly was going on here?

“Yes, [Name] has to answer a question _truthfully_ ,” Krista continued. “And Sasha, I trust you’ll be _subtle_ with your questions, won’t you?”

Now what did Krista mean by that?

“So, uh, [Name],” said Sasha. “If I recall, you had a crush on one of the third-years for a couple of months, right?”

“Yeah,” you said. “Gunther Schultz. It was a really tiny crush. I never did anything about it and it went away.”

“Interesting,” Sasha said. “So, one could safely assume you are attracted to men.”

“I…guess?” you replied. “Well. Who wants to go next?”

“No way!” Sasha yelped, shaking her head furiously. “You can’t do that! I didn’t really ask you anything!”

“But you just…”

“Okay, now for my question!” Sasha said. “[Name], who do you think the hottest guy in our class is?”

“Um…” You thought hard. “Well, Floch is pretty good-looking…”

You could’ve sworn everyone in the room, save for Mikasa, looked visibly disappointed.

“Who’s Floch?” asked Ymir.

“The, um, guy with the red hair who plays –”

“Okay, I changed my mind. I don’t actually care,” Ymir said. “I’ll go next. [Name], what guy in class are you most likely to date?”

What in the name of the Goddesses was going on here? What exactly did Sasha say behind your back to get everyone so riled up like this about you?

“Why are you asking me?” you yelped. “I literally just went! Ask someone else!”

“Well, it’s my turn, I can pick whoever I like and I pick you!” snapped Ymir. “So, suck it up, will you? Now. Answer the question.”

You knew better than to start an argument with Ymir, so you dropped it. Fine. If your friends wanted to troll you, you knew how to play along.

“Hm. That’s a tricky one.” You pretended to think hard. “If I had to pick one, I guess maybe…Marco?”

“Marco?” Ymir and the others echoed loudly.

“Marco,” you repeated smiling mischievously. “He’s the nicest guy in class. I think most people would want to date him, really.”

“Good one,” Mikasa piped up. “You stick to Marco, girl. He’s the one for you.”

“But…” Mina said, like she couldn’t believe you. “[Name], he’s gay!”

“Oh,” you pretended to be surprised. “Is he now? Well, I would totally date him if I was a guy, then.”

You noticed everyone around you starting to look annoyed, and you were loving it. “Come on guys,” you continued. “You never really specified…”

Sasha slapped her forehead loudly in frustration. “Ugh. This is going nowhere. Fine then. Krista, you go next. Ask her something.”

Krista looked visibly alarmed at being put on the spot.

“What is this, Gang-Up-On-[Name]-Day?” you asked. “Why can’t someone else have a turn? Why can’t I have a turn? I wanna ask some questions, too.”

Everyone ignored you and focused on Krista instead as she prepared her question.

“Um, okay,” Krista said. “Um, if you could date someone in our class that was attracted to women, who would it be?”

Sasha, Mina and Ymir facepalmed.

“What?” yelped Krista. “I’m trying to be subtle, okay?”

Huh. So, it seemed like the trolling was continuing. Well then. “That’s easy,” you said, smiling. “ _You_.”

“Me?” Krista gulped. Ymir, meanwhile, looked like she wanted to tear your guts out.

“Yeah, you,” you replied, trying to maintain your poker face. “Come on, Krista, you’re the prettiest and sweetest person in class. Why wouldn’t I pick you?”

“Because you wouldn’t want to die a slow and painful death?” Ymir growled. “ _Next question!_ ”

“Okay, I think I’ve got one,” Mina turned to face you. “[Name], what if– “

“My turn,” Mikasa interrupted. However, instead of facing you, she addressed Sasha. “What would it take to end this party and get these people out of our room so I could be drunk in peace?”

“Um,” Sasha, who had been texting away again, looked up from her phone. “Yeah, you’re right. We should probably wrap things up now. I have to meet Connie soon.”

“Still doing the midnight kitchen closet meetings, I see,” said Ymir dryly.

“Yep.” Sasha smiled softly. She stood up, brushing crumbs off herself. “Thank you all for coming! It was so much fun!”

“What about, um,” You noticed Krista glance at you before finishing her question, “the, um…film festival we were talking about?”

“Film festival?” you repeated incredulously as you all stood up to clean up the room. “What film festival?”

“Oh, when you were in the bathroom, I was telling the others about this, uh, film festival I wanted to go to,” Sasha said quickly. You saw her wink at Ymir and Mina discreetly. “I’ll make a group chat so we can talk about it some more and plan what we’re going to do about it.”

“Oh yeah?” you asked suspiciously. You were many things, but you were most definitely not a fool. “What’s this film festival called? Can I come too?”

You could see everyone rolling their eyes around you; even Mina seemed annoyed by your constant questioning.

“It’s called the, uh, Trost…Film Festival,” Ymir said, smirking as though she hadn’t just come up with the lamest name for a film festival ever. “And no, you can’t come.”

“Why not?” you whined. “Why can’t I –”

But before you could say anything else, Mikasa pushed everyone except Sasha out of the room and shut the door loudly.

You turned to the others to continue interrogating them, but they all began to give the fakest yawns you had ever heard. “I’m so sleepy,” Krista said. “I wish I could stay and chat, but I really must get to bed. Good night, [Name] and Mina.”

Ymir gave a similar excuse and the two girls left. You raced after Mina to your room, ready to probe into everything that had happened.

“It’s just a prank, [Name],” Mina had assured you, when you asked her what the hell that had been about. “It was smart of you to catch on. They’re just playing a prank on you. Don’t mind them.”

You frowned. There could be some truth in what she was saying, but pranks were usually funny. This just seemed weird.

But you decided not to ask any more questions. Whatever it was, it would probably blow over by tomorrow. You had more important things to worry about.

You sat at your desk and began working on your software for the competition.

***

Sasha groaned loudly as Connie handed her another marshmallow. “Ugh, I’ve got nothing!” she wailed, shoving the marshmallow into her mouth and chewing furiously.

They were both in the kitchen closet for one of their regular midnight kitchen meetings, which involved both of them stealing whatever they could find in the pantry and eating while they discussed everything that was going on in their lives. And right now, the hot topic was obviously Eren and [Name], or rather, the best way to get them together.

“How about…” Connie began, before he shook his head. “Nah. That wouldn’t work. Why is this so hard?”

“Yeah,” she said, stuffing more marshmallows in her mouth. She swallowed loudly and said, “we’re literally one of the only three couples in class. You would think we of all people would know how to get them together.”

“Well, our circumstances were different,” he insisted. “We both liked each other but were too chicken to make the first move. Things only worked out for us because…”

“…we were drunk.” Sasha finished.

“No, technically _you_ were drunk,” Connie said. “I was –”

She grabbed his wrist and shushed him. She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to get on the same page as her.

Connie’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

They grinned evilly at each other as the same idea began to form in both of their minds.

***

**TITAN TIMES**

**November 10**

| 

**Issue 776**  
  
---|---  
  
**ASK SONNY AND BEAN**

_Hey there, Titans! Is school stressing you out? Are you having trouble with your friends? Do you need advice on that special someone? Has your body been going through changes? Well, you’ve come to the right place! We’re Sonny and Bean, and we’re here to answer any questions you have about high school life! So, feel free to ask us anything – and we do mean anything – and we’ll answer your questions every week, right here, on the Titan Times!_

**To ask us a question: email us at** [ **asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd** ](mailto:asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd)

Today’s featured questions:

_Hi Sonny and Bean!!!_

_My boyfriend and I plan on getting two of our friends drunk so they can confess their love to each other! Well, technically, one of them is going to confess his love, the other doesn’t even know lol. But we’re going to make sure they get together! What’s the best way to do this?_

_I Just Want Them To Be Happy_

_Hey guys,_

_Any suggestions for a hypothetical scenario where a guy has a crush on a girl and his friend wants to get them both drunk so he can spit it out? Not saying that his friend advocates for underage drinking. This is all just hypothetical, of course._

_Close-shaved Cupid_

Greetings, I Just Want Them To Be Happy and Close-shaved Cupid!

We’ve decided to answer your questions together, since we have a feeling you’re both referring to the same people and have the same question.

First of all, we would like to make a disclaimer that neither we nor the author of this story promote underage drinking in any form! We encourage everyone reading this to consume alcohol only after they reach the legal drinking age!

But, like you said, if this were to happen in a hypothetical situation, we would recommend getting them drunk at an event of sorts, where it would be easier to get away with. We’ve heard birthday parties especially have a good track record for getting teenagers drunk. All hypothetical, as requested.

And, if you were looking for an event to hypothetically get your friends drunk, we would recommend the Titan Academy Christmas Party that’s going to be held next month! There’s nothing like the romantic atmosphere of Christmas to help them get together!

Stay safe and drink responsibly!

Love, Sonny and Bean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look up "Mysterious band No Name" to learn more about Sasha and Reader's favourite band


	3. Displays of Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren's friends make plans, while you and Eren help each other out.
> 
> Ymir and Reiner make their move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like some of the POVs might come across as confusing, since it keeps switching. Let me know if it's a problem.

“One last announcement,” Nile Dok said as he looked over his clipboard to see if the class was listening. He knew that Titan Academy’s third-years were going through a phase of senioritis, where they lost interest in stuff like homeroom announcements. However, as their homeroom teacher, he was still obligated to do his duty, regardless of if they were listening or not.

“This is a good one, I swear,” he insisted. Several students sat up straight at that, and he could see Hange Zoë already grinning in anticipation. “As you all know, Titan Academy will be having its Annual Christmas Party on the last day of school. Like every year, Class 3 will be in charge of organising the entire event.”

Excited whispers began floating around the classroom. Nile smiled to himself.

“We’ll need one of you to play Santa,” he said, after consulting his clipboard. “The person chosen will not only be responsible for spreading Christmas cheer through the school, but they’ll also be in charge of the Secret Snowflake event. If you remember, students are allowed to submit Snowflakes – secret messages – to Santa, who collects them weeks before the party to be read out that night.”

“We’ll be having a draw to determine who’ll be Santa this year,” he continued. “Probably sometime next week. That’s all.”

The class broke out into excited chatter as everyone began discussing the upcoming Christmas party.

***

 **You** created the group “ **Eren and [Name] <3**”

 **You** added **Connie** **(** **≧◡≦** **)** **♡**

 **Connie** **(** **≧◡≦** **)** **♡** : Heyo!

 **You** added **Mikasa** **ヽ** **(** **ー** **_** **ー** **)** **ノ**

 **Mikasa** **ヽ** **(** **ー** **_** **ー** **)** **ノ** : I ask to be no part of this

 **You** added **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ**

 **You** added **Krista** **(** **◕** **‿** **◕** **✿** **)**

 **You** added **Mina (** **❦◡❦** **๑** **)**

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : Finally!

 **You** added **Armin:** **(** **◡** **‿** **◡** ***)**

 **You** added **Marco ξξ(** **∵◕◡◕∵** **)** **ξξ**

 **You** added **Jean** **(** **・** **`ω´** **・** **)**

 **Jean** **(** **・** **`ω´** **・** **)** : I hate everything about this

 **You** : Did I miss anyone?

 **Connie** **(** **≧◡≦** **)** **♡** : Might be worth adding BRA. They could do something to help

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : Ew

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : I don’t see how Reiner would be helpful but whatever

 **You** added **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**

 **You** added **Bertolt (;´** **༎** **ຶ** **ٹ** **༎** **ຶ** **`)**

 **You** added **Annie** **(** **ఠ** **͟ʖ** **ఠ** **)**

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** : What’s this about?

 **You** : I’m getting to that

 **You** : Alright, to recap, we all know that Eren has a big crush on [Name]!!!

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** : Oooh tea ☕

 **Krista** **(** **◕** **‿** **◕** **✿** **)** : And we’re going to set them up!

 **Bertolt (;´** **༎** **ຶ** **ٹ** **༎** **ຶ** **`)** : That’s awesome! I’m happy for him. I have so many ideas!

 **Annie** **(** **ఠ** **͟ʖ** **ఠ** **)** left

 **You** : Um rude

 **Marco ξξ(** **∵◕◡◕∵** **)** **ξξ** : This goes without saying, but no one’s telling Eren and [Name] about this

 **Mina (** **❦◡❦** **๑** **)** : She’s going to be so suspicious though

 **Armin:** **(** **◡** **‿** **◡** ***)** : Eren doesn’t want her finding out. We have to respect his wishes

 **Bertolt (;´** **༎** **ຶ** **ٹ** **༎** **ຶ** **`)** : I think I know the best way to go about this

 **Connie** **(** **≧◡≦** **)** **♡** : Anyway, so Sasha and I have a plan

 **You** : We’re going to get them together at the Christmas party next month

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** : That’s a long way off. What if [Name] hooks up with someone else by then?

 **You** : Who’s she going to hook up with? You?

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** : She might

 **Mina (** **❦◡❦** **๑** **)** : Ew please no

 **Bertolt (;´** **༎** **ຶ** **ٹ** **༎** **ຶ** **`)** : Doesn’t anyone want to hear my idea?

 **Krista** **(** **◕** **‿** **◕** **✿** **)** : Reiner’s right, guys. We can’t wait until Christmas

 **Marco ξξ(** **∵◕◡◕∵** **)** **ξξ** : I agree. I’m sure there’s something we could do now

 **Connie** **(** **≧◡≦** **)** **♡** : Okay then

 **Connie** **(** **≧◡≦** **)** **♡** : What did you have in mind, Reiner?

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** : Easy

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** : Eren’s biggest problem is his inexperience. He’s never had a girlfriend before and doesn’t know what to do with women

 **Mikasa** **ヽ** **(** **ー** **_** **ー** **)** **ノ** : I disagree

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** : Your fantasies don’t count, Mikasa

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : BURN

 **Bertolt (;´** **༎** **ຶ** **ٹ** **༎** **ຶ** **`)** : Guys?

 **Marco ξξ(** **∵◕◡◕∵** **)** **ξξ** : I’m inclined to agree with him on this one. We’ll need to teach Eren a few things before he approaches [Name]

 **Armin:** **(** **◡** **‿** **◡** ***)** : I do agree that Eren could use some tips on talking to her

 **Mina (** **❦◡❦** **๑** **)** : Yeah. And we need to get [Name] to see him as a potential boyfriend, too

 **Jean** **(** **・** **`ω´** **・** **)** : Idk why you guys are wasting your time over that loser, he doesn’t deserve a girlfriend

 **Krista** **(** **◕** **‿** **◕** **✿** **)** : Everyone deserves to be happy, Jean

 **Bertolt (;´** **༎** **ຶ** **ٹ** **༎** **ຶ** **`)** : If you guys aren’t going to take me seriously I’m quitting this chat

 **You** : Reiner what are you trying to say?

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** : Pickup lines have never failed me. I think that’s our best option here

 **Krista** **(** **◕** **‿** **◕** **✿** **)** : Reiner, your pick-up lines have NEVER worked. We’ll need Eren to be subtle

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** : We give him a makeover and teach him how to turn women on. He’s going to have her eating out of the palm of his hand

 **Mina (** **❦◡❦** **๑** **)** : I don’t like this idea

 **Armin:** **(** **◡** **‿** **◡** ***)** : Me neither

 **Bertolt (;´** **༎** **ຶ** **ٹ** **༎** **ຶ** **`)** : Screw you guys, I’m leaving

 **Marco ξξ(** **∵◕◡◕∵** **)** **ξξ** : He does need to impress her, but he’ll need to be chivalrous and romantic. Pick-up lines won’t do

 **Bertolt (;´** **༎** **ຶ** **ٹ** **༎** **ຶ** **`)** left

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : UGH

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : I hate saying this, but Reiner’s right

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : Eren is LAME. Sorry not sorry Mikasa

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : But he’s not bad-looking. He has potential

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : If we gave him a few tips on being sexier, [Name] would be taking off her clothes for him already

 **Mina (** **❦◡❦** **๑** **)** : Ymir!!!!

 **Mikasa** **ヽ** **(** **ー** **_** **ー** **)** **ノ** : No.

 **Jean** **(** **・** **`ω´** **・** **)** : Bitch please. No girl is ever taking their clothes off for fucking Yeager

 **Krista** **(** **◕** **‿** **◕** **✿** **)** : Where’s the romance in that?

 **Krista** **(** **◕** **‿** **◕** **✿** **)** : I like Marco’s idea. Eren already has this “brooding guy” thing going on. If we tap into that, we could get [Name] to fall for him!

 **Connie** **(** **≧◡≦** **)** **♡** : These are all great ideas and all

 **Connie** **(** **≧◡≦** **)** **♡** : But have these worked for any of you before?

 **Connie** **(** **≧◡≦** **)** **♡** : *crickets chirping*

 **Connie** **(** **≧◡≦** **)** **♡** : That’s what I thought

 **Jean** **(** **・** **`ω´** **・** **)** : Did you seriously just type “crickets chirping”?

 **You** : Yeah. Connie and I know our plan would work

 **You** : Because it’s worked before

 **You** : For us

 **Armin:** **(** **◡** **‿** **◡** ***)** : All of your ideas are good, but they seem too far-fetched

 **Armin:** **(** **◡** **‿** **◡** ***)** : I think we could easily get them together if we encouraged them to be FRIENDS first

 **Armin:** **(** **◡** **‿** **◡** ***)** : Like if we worked on building their friendship instead of…all of this

 **Mina (** **❦◡❦** **๑** **)** : Honestly at this point all I want is for them to have a conversation without things being weird

 **Jean** **(** **・** **`ω´** **・** **)** : HAHAHAHAHA right

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : Really Armin?

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** : Don’t stick him in the friendzone before he’s even had a chance!

 **Marco ξξ(** **∵◕◡◕∵** **)** **ξξ** : Well. It appears we have reached an impasse

 **You** : The only thing I can agree on

 **You** : Is that we can’t seem to agree on anything

 **Krista** **(** **◕** **‿** **◕** **✿** **)** : It would probably be best if we tried out our plans separately

 **Mikasa** **ヽ** **(** **ー** **_** **ー** **)** **ノ** : I don’t want to try out anything. I don’t think Eren and [Name] should be together

 **Jean** **(** **・** **`ω´** **・** **)** : Yeah I don’t want that bastard to have a girlfriend

 **Marco ξξ(** **∵◕◡◕∵** **)** **ξξ** is typing…

 **Armin:** **(** **◡** **‿** **◡** ***)** is typing…

 **Krista** **(** **◕** **‿** **◕** **✿** **)** is typing…

 **Reiner** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)** is typing…

 **Mina (** **❦◡❦** **๑** **)** is typing…

 **Ymir (** **ノ** **°** **益** **°)** **ノ** : DIBS ON TRYING OUT MY IDEA FIRST

 **Mina (** **❦◡❦** **๑** **)** : Dammit

***

Armin sighed for the hundredth time that evening.

“No, Eren,” he said patiently, although even Eren could tell that his patience was thinning. “Sine is _not_ cotangent over zero. You can’t divide anything by zero. Zero isn’t even in any of these trigonometric ratios!”

Eren looked like he wanted to cry. They had a Maths test tomorrow, and while it was a routine test for the others, it was vital that he passed. His score in the midterms had been average and Shadis had threatened to stop his club activities if it didn’t improve. He had to do well on this test if he wanted to keep playing soccer.

“This is too hard,” he moaned. “I’m never going to remember this crap.”

Armin breathed deeply. “It’s not hard,” he said. “You have to remember only three ratios: sine, cosine and tangent. If you can remember these, you’ll remember everything else. Focus on them for now.”

Eren shot him a nervous look and said, “Is tangent, um, adjacent over hypotenuse?”

Armin buried his face in his hands, trying not to burst into tears. He knew all of the ratios perfectly, but after witnessing Eren’s failure to remember even the most basic ones, he was losing his faith in humanity.

He had been tutoring Eren on trigonometric ratios for the past two hours in the library. It was almost bedtime but Eren had made virtually no progress so far. Armin was about to launch into another length spiel about trigonometry when his phone vibrated in his pocket.

Huh. Apparently he had been added into a group chat. Cool. He was about to text back when he saw what the group chat was called.

With Eren sitting so close, there was no way he could reply without him seeing what was on his screen.

“Um, just try to remember the three ratios I told you about,” he said, pushing the textbook towards his friend. “I’ll give you some time to study by yourself, I have to text someone.”

***

After Armin left, Eren slumped back in his chair. He was miserable. He had no intention of studying anymore, but he was also desperate to pass the test and get Shadis off his back. He pushed the textbook away and rested his forehead on the table.

He began daydreaming about his next soccer game. It was going to be against Trost High, who was Titan Academy’s rival in almost every sport. He imagined scoring the winning goal and [Name] cheering for him in the stands.

Eren smiled to himself. He never thought he would have a crush on someone, but he had recently developed feelings for the girl and they were causing him to behave all funny. He would smile to himself when he thought about her and lapse in fantasies where he did something cool and she was impressed.

 _“Eren! Eren! Eren!” she cheered, as he stripped his shirt off and whipped it around his head. He could tell from the look on her face that she was_ very _impressed with what she was seeing. “Eren! Eren! Eren!”_

“Eren?” he heard a small voice say as someone shook his shoulder.

With a start, he sat up straight to see [Name] standing next to him, peering at him anxiously.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you or startle you or anything,” she said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

Even though they were in the same class, this was the first time they had spoken since the day she had kicked a soccer ball to his stomach. To say he was happy to see her would be an understatement.

“All good,” he replied, trying to pretend like he hadn’t just been fantasising about her. “Are you here to study?”

“Actually, I was looking for _you_ ,” she said, eyeing the chair next to him where Armin had been sitting. Armin’s backpack was still on the chair. “May I?”

He wasted no time in kicking it off so she could sit down. “Yeah, sure.”

To hear she had been looking for him had made his heart soar to infinite heights. She was looking for him! _Him!_

As she sat down next to him, Eren was more than convinced that despite never having had a crush before, he had _excellent_ taste in women. [Name] had beautiful eyes, the kind that sparkled when she spoke, and there was something about her smile that melted his bones and caused him to turn into jelly. She reached into her backpack to retrieve her laptop, and as she turned, he caught a whiff of her scent. He couldn’t place it, but it was intoxicating – to him, at least. He would’ve kept sniffing her, but, as inept as he was, even _he_ knew that wasn’t socially acceptable.

“I feel so silly for bothering you about this,” she said, giving a small, embarrassed laugh. “I would’ve texted you to ask, but I don’t have your number and we don’t follow each other on social media or anything...”

Again, Eren knew virtually nothing about girls and dating, but he was not dumb. Okay, maybe he was. But he had just enough common sense to know that exchanging phone numbers was the first step to building a relationship with someone and this was his best opportunity to get hers. He wasn’t sure what kind of relationship he wanted with her yet; he just knew he wanted to talk to her some more and for her to see him play someday. He hadn’t felt anything like the high he experienced in the past week after speaking to her, and he wanted to feel that way all the time.

Unfortunately, before he could say anything about exchanging numbers, she had changed the subject.

“I won’t take too much of your time,” she said. Quickly, she explained how their conversation last week had given her an idea of what she wanted to do for the contest. She was going to develop an application that would take in player stats and other details and would design a training regimen for them.

Eren nodded. He could definitely see that being useful, although he was embarrassed to think that his failure to keep up with his routine and his inability to walk that day had given her this idea.

“I’ve been doing some research, but I thought I’d get more information if I spoke to you directly,” she continued. “Do you mind if I asked you a few questions about soccer and your training?”

He nodded again. He would answer anything she asked as long as she let him sit next to her and bask in that smile.

Eren happily answered all of [Name]’s questions for the next fifteen minutes. He was trying to stay focused on what she was saying, but it was hard when she was sitting there in front of him, smiling, her scent drifting in his direction. He could feel his face heating up and tried his best to control himself. At some point, she brought her chair closer and her knee brushed against his. He had to discreetly pick up his backpack and put it on his lap so she wouldn’t notice the kind of effect she had on him.

“That’s all, I think,” she said, shooting him that smile again. “Thank you so much. I will let you know if I think of anything else.”

This was it. This was the perfect opportunity. If he did not take it, he would regret it every day.

“Why don’t I give you my number?” he suggested. “Then you could just call or text me if you needed to know something.”

Her eyes widened. “Really? You wouldn’t mind? I wouldn’t be a pain in the ass for annoying you constantly?”

He laughed. “No, of course not.”

She smiled at him again. “Sounds good. Where’s my phone…” [Name] began to pat herself down.

Eren waited expectantly for her to find her phone. However, Armin chose that very moment to walk into the library.

“I’m back,” he said and stopped in shock when he saw [Name] in his seat. “[Name]! You’re here! With Eren!”

“Oh hi, Armin!” [Name] said. She stopped looking for her phone, forgetting that Eren was going to give her his number, and instead began packing her things. “Sorry, I didn’t realise you had been sitting here! I’ll leave as soon as I can!”

Eren loved Armin, but he had never wanted to kick him harder than he did right now.

“No, you can stay,” Armin said, dragging a third chair to the table. “Eren and I were studying for tomorrow’s test. You can join us.”

“That’s okay,” she shook her head. “I have to go. You should’ve told me you were studying, Eren, I wouldn’t have bothered you otherwise!”

Eren just shrugged. He was annoyed; annoyed with Armin for cockblocking him, annoyed at himself for blowing it and annoyed that he was nowhere near being ready for that test tomorrow.

“He’s going to be here for a while,” Armin said with a small laugh. “He can’t seem to remember the most basic trig ratios of _sine_ , _cos_ and _tan_.”

“I see,” [Name] replied, shooting him a sympathetic look.

Scratch that: _now_ Eren had never wanted to kick Armin more.

“Well, good luck,” she said, swinging her backpack over her shoulder. “And thanks for your help, Eren. In fact…” [Name] had stood up to leave, but she turned back to look at him. “Can I give you some advice?”

“Sure,” Eren said, wondering what she was going to say. As much as he liked being around her, he was waiting for her to leave so he could unleash his rage on Armin.

She walked towards him and bent down so her face was close to his. He turned scarlet as all of his senses were attacked at once.

“Sex on hard concrete always hurts. Try other alternatives,” she whispered.

“Wh…wh…what?” Eren stammered. He was so glad his backpack was covering his lap or he would’ve been in a very embarrassing situation right then. He could see Armin out of the corner of his eye trying not to laugh.

[Name] smiled. She took his notebook and pen and wrote something down. “Sex On Hard Concrete Always Hurts Try Other Alternatives,” she repeated, pointing at the first initials of each word. She scribbled into his book again and pointed at what she had written. “SOHCAHTOA. Sin equals Opposite over Hypotenuse, Cos equals Adjacent over Hypotenuse and Tan equals Opposite over Adjacent. If you remember that sentence, you should be able to remember the ratios easily.” She flashed him one last smile and walked away.

Eren stared at her retreating form. After the way she had whispered _that_ into his ear, he was not forgetting his trig ratios anytime soon.

***

 **Loser 1** : Ymir

 **You** : No

 **Loser 1** : You don’t even know what I was going to say

 **You** : And you already have my answer. No.

 **Loser 1** : At least hear me out

 **You** : NO.

 **Loser 1** : This is something that would benefit both of us

 **You** : …

 **You** : I’m only listening to you because you’re going to keep annoying me till I do

 **You** : What do you want Reiner

 **Loser 1** : I think we should work together

 **Loser 1** : To help Eren with [Name]

 **You** : And why would I work with you?

 **Loser 1** : Because we both want the same things

 **Loser 1** : You want Eren to be sexier. I want him to learn how to pick up girls

 **Loser 1** : They’re kind of the same thing

 **You** : Get lost Reiner

 **You** : I already called dibs, I’m not sharing them with you

 **Loser 1** : You have to admit, you kind of need me

 **You** : What do mean? Why on earth would I possibly need YOU?

 **Loser 1** : Well

 **Loser 1** : You’re a woman

 **Loser 1** : And a lesbian

 **Loser 1** : Not saying you don’t know much about men

 **Loser 1** : But I probably know more than you

 **You** : As offensive as that was

 **You** : You have ten seconds to convince me why I shouldn’t block you

 **Loser 1** is typing…

 **You** : 8…7…6…

 **Loser 1** is typing…

 **You** : 4…3…2…

 **Loser 1** : I’ll pay for everything

 **Loser 1** : His makeover and shit

 **Loser 1** : All costs involved

 **You** : And you’ll buy me and Krista all the KitKats we want

 **Loser 1** : …

 **Loser 1** : fine

 **You** : Meet me at the girls’ student lounge after dinner tomorrow night

 **You** : Let’s do this

***

_“Sex on hard concrete always hurts. Try other alternatives.”_

Eren had not been able to get [Name]’s words out of his mind since that day. Well, technically, he had not been able to get _her_ out of his mind, but her words, in particular, were affecting him now.

“Oi, Eren,” Floch said, shooting him an irritated look. “What was with that half-assed performance today? Are you _trying_ to get kicked off the team?”

How the tables had turned. Two weeks ago, it was him yelling at Floch for checking out girls in the bleachers and now it was _him_ practicing with one eye constantly on the stands. He kept looking to see if [Name] had shown up to practice; he knew she had her own club meetings to get to, but he couldn’t help himself.

Eren didn’t look at Floch. Normally, he would’ve stopped whatever he was doing and screamed at him for making a comment like that, however, he didn’t want to think about him right now.

“Fuck off,” he said, walking away from the field. He wondered where [Name] was. Would she be in the library again? Maybe if he went to the library and pretended to study, she would join him? He had done well on his Maths test the other day (it was hard not to, after what she had said), but he was willing to try and study some more if she helped him.

He was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice Ymir and Reiner standing near the bleachers.

“Thinking about [Name] again?” Ymir said cattily. He whipped his head around at the sound of that name to find them both grinning at him.

“How did you –”

Reiner walked up to him and put one arm around his shoulder. He coiled in disgust when he realised how sweaty Eren was and peeled his arm off. “Eren, buddy,” he said, his tone friendly. “How are you doing?”

Eren was immediately suspicious. He didn’t trust Ymir, but he trusted Reiner even less. “What do you want?” he asked.

Ymir put her hand on his shoulder. “We know about your little crush on [Name],” she said, flashing him an “I-know-everything” smile. “And we’re here to help.”

He rolled his eyes. He was embarrassed and angry that they knew (his friends were going to be receiving a long telling-off tonight) and he certainly didn’t want their help.

“Go away,” he said, trying to push Ymir’s arm off his shoulder.

“Trust me, Eren, you need our help,” Reiner said. The sympathetic tone in his voice did not go unnoticed. The way Reiner spoke made Eren feel like he was on his side, like he only wanted what was best for him. He stopped to listen.

“I’m doing fine,” he said, more to himself than to them. “I…we…she talks to me…”

“But if you let us help you,” Ymir said, “she’s going to want to do a lot more than just _talk_ to you.”

_“Sex on hard concrete always hurts. Try other alternatives.”_

He imagined [Name] on hard concrete with him, doing unspeakable things. His old problem came back and he quickly shifted his soccer kit so it was covering his front.

Ymir pointed her phone at his face. Her front camera was turned on and he could see himself in her screen. His hair was wet and his skin was dripping with sweat. His face was extremely red and there was a streak of mud on his cheek.

“That’s what [Name] sees right now,” Ymir whispered deviously. “But if we help, we can get you to look _so_ much better.”

“Also,” Reiner sniggered. “We could train you so you don’t have –” his eyes travelled to Eren’s crotch “– _that_ problem anymore.”

Eren flushed angrily. He was embarrassed that Reiner had noticed. He knew he was preying on his inexperience and, as much as he hated to admit it, it was working.

“I’ll level with you here, Eren,” Ymir said. “I think you’re a good guy. I want you to succeed, I really do. That’s why I don’t want you to lose [Name] to Floch over there –” She jerked her thumb towards the field, where Floch was talking to Nanaba.

That did it. His blood began to boil and his throat went dry. “What are you talking about?” he said harshly.

“Oh, you know,” Ymir put her hands behind her head innocently. “Last week, on Friday, the girls had a slumber party. During Truth or Dare, [Name] was asked who she thought the hottest guy in class was. And guess whose name she said? Not yours, that’s for sure. She said, and I quote, ‘well, _Floch_ is pretty good-looking…’”

Rage began building up inside him. Eren was a competitive and jealous person, and hearing that the girl he liked was admiring another guy, a guy he already disliked, had increased his anger exponentially.

Then he remembered the infirmary incident. When [Name] had shot the soccer ball into his stomach, she had been sitting in the bleachers, watching them practice. He hadn’t seen the ball coming because he had been distracted. Floch had been annoying him by checking out the girl in the bleachers…

His entire body trembled with rage. He wanted to walk up to Floch and pound his face into the dirt. Instead, he took the deepest breath he had ever taken, trying to muster all the self-control he possessed.

“What did you have in mind?” he said.

***

**TITAN TIMES**

**November 17**

| 

**Issue 777**  
  
---|---  
  
**ASK SONNY AND BEAN**

_Hey there, Titans! Is school stressing you out? Are you having trouble with your friends? Do you need advice on that special someone? Has your body been going through changes? Well, you’ve come to the right place! We’re Sonny and Bean, and we’re here to answer any questions you have about high school life! So, feel free to ask us anything – and we do mean anything – and we’ll answer your questions every week, right here, on the Titan Times!_

**To ask us a question: email us at** [ **asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd** ](mailto:asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd)

Today’s featured questions:

_Hey,_

_So there’s this guy I know and he’s EXTREMELY lame and average-looking. There’s nothing interesting about his personality, either. But he likes one of my friends and I’m trying to help him out. Is there any hope for losers like him? It’s not like I would know or anything._

_Whatever_

Greetings, Whatever!

We like to believe that there’s hope for everyone regardless of their looks and personality! Your friend may not be the most good-looking guy in the room and he might not have the most fun personality. To be honest, it doesn’t sound like he has a lot going for him. But the best thing you could do would be to build up his confidence so he can approach the person he likes and get to know them! For all you know, they may be into guys like him!

Love, Sonny and Bean

_Hey dudes,_

_Trying to teach my inexperienced friend to pick up girls. What’s the best pick-up line you know? Specifically ones for smart girls._

_The God of *****_

Greetings, The God of *****!

First off, please be aware that words like the name you signed off with are not permitted to be published in the school newsletter and we have regrettably censored it.

Here are some of our favourite pick-up lines for smart people:

  * Are you the square root of minus one? Because you can’t be real!
  * Have you swallowed a magnet? Because I’m so attracted to you right now.
  * You must be a pile of dinosaur bones, because I dig you!
  * Are you a keyboard? Cause you’re my type!
  * Feel my shirt. It’s made of boyfriend/girlfriend material.



Love, Sonny and Bean


	4. Territorial Behaviour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren tries to impress you with Ymir and Reiner's tips. Marco and Krista step in, and things take a turn for the worse.

You sat on a bench outside the main school building with your laptop before you. It was early morning and there were twenty minutes left for homeroom to begin. You had put your things away in class before and were now working on your project.

You bit your lip as you worked. You had been spending all your free time on your prototype, as both of your conversations with Eren Yeager had inspired you greatly. You had been working under the supervision of Mr Jarnach, your IT teacher, and were due to show him what you had come up with so far today after school. Naturally, you were stressed out and were trying to polish your presentation up to impress him.

You paused as you suddenly hit a snag. You had chosen high school soccer as the base for your application and had wanted to create a slide listing a few facts about your school soccer club. However, you had left a section blank in your presentation when you realised you knew less about the soccer club than you thought you did.

Not that it was a big deal. You could always ask Eren again; in fact, he was the one who said you could ask him anything anytime. You reached for your phone to text him…

…only to realise you had forgotten to get his number the last time. Oh well. You put your phone away, disappointed. You would just leave that bit blank until the next time you saw him, and you would make sure to get his number, too.

To your enormous luck, Eren Yeager chose that moment to plop down next to you on the bench.

“Oh, hey Eren,” you said warmly. “Thank goodness you’re – what the fuck?”

Your jaw dropped. Eren didn’t quite look like himself. He was still wearing his school uniform (Titan Academy’s winter uniform consisted of a long-sleeved white shirt, green trousers or pleated skirt, green blazer or sweater and dark blue and grey tie), but he was wearing it very differently. He wasn’t wearing his blazer and his shirt wasn’t even tucked in. His sleeves had been rolled up so you could see well-defined muscles under them. His tie had been loosened and the first three buttons of his shirt were undone. You caught sight of his strong chest and gulped.

His hair, on the other end, had been spiked up and styled so it fell over his face, making him look like a delinquent. He was wearing a bit of makeup, you could tell; a slight tinge of eyeliner made his green eyes pop more than usual and his lips and cheeks were pink.

You swallowed hard and your heart began to beat faster. What the actual fuck?

The scent of his cologne drifted in your direction. In the two times you had been in close proximity to him, he had smelled like dried sweat the first time, but had a clean, _boy_ smell the second – which was now masked with the overpowering scent of the brand-name cologne he was using. You flinched away unconsciously.

“What the fuck,” you whispered again.

“Hey,” Eren said, his voice deeper than usual. He lifted his arms so they rested on top of the bench backrest, but in the process ended up involuntarily nudging you further away from him.

“Is, um,” you said, not sure how to approach his change of appearance and voice and – basically, everything. “Is everything okay, Eren?”

“All good,” he replied automatically in that same deep voice he had used before.

As much as you disliked his change in appearance, you couldn’t deny that he was, indeed, very attractive and even _more_ so styled as a delinquent. Your heart thumped loudly in your chest, and you didn’t like it one bit.

“So, uh,” he said. “Feel my shirt. You know what it’s made of?”

“Uh…” You weren’t sure how to answer him. It was the same white shirt that all the other students in your school wore – so why would his be any different? “Cotton?”

“What? No,” he replied, as though he hadn’t been expecting you to say that. “Yeah, it is cotton, but also, uh…”

He trailed off, looking embarrassed. You just blinked at him, confused; you weren’t sure what was wrong with him or why he was being so strange.

“Um, anyway,” you said, trying your best to ignore everything that was obviously wrong here. “I’m glad to see you, I was hoping to ask you something. How often does the soccer club practice in a week?”

Eren suddenly did something strange: he spread his legs apart so they were now covering nearly all of the bench you both were sitting on, almost forcing you off it.

“Good question,” he said. “And I have a question for _you_ , too.”

“Um, okay?” You frowned, your confusion growing. This wasn’t like the Eren you knew, the one who listened to you and encouraged you and answered all your questions as you spoke about your project. But you needed his help right now, so you shrugged and said, “What is it?”

Eren smirked at you, leaning close. “Are you a keyboard?”

“What?” You were thoroughly and utterly confused now. Why was he asking you that? Was this an insult towards you being a techie?

“Because you can’t be real,” he finished. Then he frowned. “Wait, that’s not it.”

“Oh…kay,” you said slowly. From his reaction, you guessed that he had been trying to tell you a joke that had fallen flat. “Haha?” you said uncertainly. “Anyway, about the soccer club…”

“Wait, no, let me try again,” he said hastily. Taking a deep breath, he said, “Are you a magnet?”

“Um,” you said. “I don’t think I am…?”

“Because you’re a dinosaur!” Eren finished triumphantly.

You just blinked at him. Your heart was now pounding faster than ever and you were _very_ confused. Also, it was cold but you were sweating profusely under your collar for some reason. Not to mention you were also on the verge of falling off the bench.

You checked the time on your phone. There were seven minutes left for class to begin. You stood up.

“I’ll just, um, ask someone else, I guess,” you said, tucking your laptop under your arm. You walked as fast as you could towards the school.

***

“So,” Ymir said smugly as she popped another KitKat mini into her mouth. “Notice that Yeager’s looking _sexier_ these days?”

Krista rolled her eyes. “I have noticed, actually, and I have been meaning to talk to you about it.” She put down her chopsticks. “What did you and Reiner do to him?”

“Just gave him the makeover he so desperately needed,” Ymir said, looking quite pleased with herself. “And gave him a few tips on turning women on.” She frowned, before adding, “Also, Reiner taught him some lame pick-up lines, but I had nothing to do with that.”

“He looks like a delinquent, Ymir!” Krista cried. “And you know that his uniform and hair product are against the school rules! Shadis sends him back to the dorms to change every morning and threatened to call his parents if he dressed like that again!”

“You mean he looks _sexy_ ,” Ymir grinned. “And it worked! I saw [Name] looking all flustered after he made his move.”

Krista shook her head. “Please. There is _no way_ that worked.”

“Oh, Krista,” Ymir replied. “I love you, but you’re obviously jealous that my idea worked before you even got to try yours out.”

Krista sighed. She stood up and grabbed Ymir’s arm. “Let’s find out, shall we?”

They walked over to a table in the corner of the dining hall, where [Name] was sitting by herself, frowning at her laptop.

“Hi [Name],” Krista said sweetly, giving the girl one of her trademark angelic smiles. “Are you working on your project again?”

“Hm?” [Name] looked up from her laptop. “Oh, hey Krista. Ymir.” She did not answer the question and instead went back to frowning at her laptop.

“Is your project stressing you out?” Krista said sympathetically as she and Ymir took seats from across [Name].

“Yeah, kinda,” [Name] replied, still not looking at them. Then she sighed and finally looked up from her laptop. “Well. No. That’s not exactly it. The project is stressing me out, but there’s something else that’s been bothering me lately…”

Both Ymir and Krista looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue.

“It’s, um,” [Name] said, nervously tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “So you know how I mentioned I had been using Eren Yeager and the soccer club as a reference for my app?”

“Yeah,” said Ymir eagerly. “We remember.”

“Well,” [Name] continued. “He’s been acting so…weird lately. He’s dressing weird and talking weird and he smells weird and I…I can’t understand…”

Krista shot Ymir a pointed glare, before leaning forward to ask, “Weird how?”

“Like,” [Name] thought hard. “Like, for example, he came over to me the other day, right? He sat next to me. But he was _sitting_ really weirdly. He was manspreading all over the bench. I don’t even know why, because he seemed perfectly capable of sitting like a normal person before.”

Krista gave Ymir a sharp kick under the table, as if to say, “I told you so!”

“And his voice…” [Name] continued. “He’s putting on this really weird deep voice. And he smells like a douche now. And he made these weird jokes that didn’t seem to have punchlines?”

“But,” Ymir said, nudging Krista in the side. “Did you think he was, I don’t know, sexy?”

[Name] suddenly looked embarrassed. “Um,” she said. “His behaviour was kind of off-putting, to be honest. But as for –”

Krista stood up, stopping [Name] mid-sentence. “Excuse us, [Name],” she said, grabbing Ymir’s arm. “I think we have somewhere else to be right now. Sorry.”

The two girls raced off, with [Name] looking on, puzzled.

“This is a disaster,” Krista moaned, as the two made their way back to their own table. “You were supposed to get her to _like_ him, not turn her off!”

Ymir held up her hands defensively. “Hey, I tried my best,” she said. “It’s not my fault she has bad taste!”

“I have to fix this,” Krista said, pulling out her phone. “It’s time for me to make my move.”

 **You** : SOS

 **You** : 119

 **You** : Emergency

 **Marco** **🎓** : Krista? What happened?

 **You** : Everything is falling apart

 **You** : Ymir and Reiner’s involvement ended up making things WORSE for [Name] and Eren

 **Marco** **🎓** : Crap

 **You** : EXACTLY

 **You** : Everyone else is great and all but

 **You** : You’re the only one I trust to fix things

 **You** : Their ideas are just plain stupid

 **Marco** **🎓** : Right. Let’s work together then

 **Marco** **🎓** : Meet me at the boys’ student lounge after breakfast tomorrow morning

 **Marco** **🎓** : Let’s do some damage control

***

“Everyone ready?” Mr Dok asked, his eyes travelling around the class. Levi sighed.

Their class was due to host the upcoming school Christmas party and he was _not_ looking forward to it. He hated everything about it; he hated Christmas, he hated parties and he hated Christmas parties. He did not want to be involved with the Christmas party at all, and he didn’t understand why his classmates were so excited.

Take, for example, the Abnormal seated next to him.

“I’m soooooo excited!” Hange squealed, clapping her hands. “I’ve been looking forward to this since our first year!”

Their homeroom teacher was conducting a draw to pick one student from class to be Santa. He had written everyone’s seat numbers on pieces of paper and had put them in a box. After shaking it to mix it up a bit, he had finally pulled out one lucky (or unlucky, in Levi’s opinion) student’s number out.

“Okay then, let’s see who we’ve got,” Mr Dok said, unfolding the piece of paper.

“I hope it’s me!” Hange whispered. “I’ve always wanted to be Santa! It’s my dream!”

Levi questioned her life ambitions if her dream was to wear a fake beard and a saggy belly and collect love letters from teenagers, but he didn’t say anything.

“So the lucky student who gets to be Santa this year is Seat Number…1!” Mr Dok said happily. “Let’s see, who’s Seat 1?”

However, while he turned to find his attendance sheet to check who it was, the rest of the class knew. They had been together for three years and knew each other’s seat numbers by heart. They also knew that their names were alphabetically arranged on the class roll, which meant Seat 1 was…

“Levi Ackerman!” Mr Dok exclaimed as everyone in class turned to face the boy in question.

Levi buried his face in his hands. He had been in a lot of embarrassing situations before, but he had never wanted to die more than he did right then.

***

Eren frowned at his phone as he walked out of the elevator. It was Sunday morning and Marco had texted him last night asking to meet him at the boys’ student lounge that morning. He hadn’t said why, so Eren guessed it had something to do with classwork, since Marco was class president.

“Eren, hi!” Krista greeted. He looked up to find her and Marco seated together on one of the couches near the TV, grinning at him. “Come join us!”

He took a seat next to them, wondering what they wanted. Maybe Krista had the same class president business with Marco as he did?

“Okay, first off,” Marco said. “I’m glad you have the common sense to not dress like you’ve been dressing all week.”

He hadn’t styled his hair or followed any of Ymir’s fashion tips today, as it was a Sunday and he didn’t think he would run into [Name]. Not that he didn’t want to, but putting on makeup and hair gel all week had been a pain and Reiner’s cologne smelled _nasty_. Not to mention he was seriously in trouble with Shadis and didn’t want to piss him off any more than he already had.

“Also,” Krista continued. “Sorry, but your approach with [Name] is all wrong. We’re here to fix things.”

He glared at her suspiciously. He had only told his male friends about his crush, who had assured him that the only people they had told were Sasha, Ymir and Reiner. So how did Krista know?

Ymir or Marco had probably told her, he guessed. He was annoyed; was _nobody_ in this school able to keep their mouths shut?

“I’m fine,” he said, irritated. “Ymir and Reiner –”

But Krista cut him off before he could finish. “Didn’t she walk away from you the last time you spoke to her?”

He gulped at that. Yes, his pick-up line had fallen flat and she had probably walked away because of that. He had also noticed that [Name] seemed to be avoiding him after that and would do no more than give him an embarrassed smile every time she caught his eye.

“She did,” he replied in a small voice.

“And do you want to win her back or not?” Marco said.

He had not seen that beautiful smile all week. Not since he had scared her off with his absurd behaviour.

“Yes,” he said again.

Marco smiled. “And after we’re done with you, [Name] is going to be head over heels for you.”

Eren sighed. He wanted to believe what Marco was saying. He trusted him and Krista more than he trusted Ymir and Reiner.

Besides, what did he have to lose?

“What do I have to do?” he asked. He still didn’t know what they had planned, besides the fact that it somehow involved the television.

“For now?” Krista said. “Just pay attention.”

“To what?” he asked.

Marco switched on the TV and launched the YouTube application. “The best of Min Lee Know,” he announced as a video began playing on the screen.

“What?”

“As you know,” Marco explained. “I’m a huge fan of Korean dramas, especially _Boys Over Flour_.”

Eren hadn’t known. He knew Korean dramas and music were popular amongst people his age, but he hadn’t expected _Marco_ of all people to be a fan.

“Boys Over Flour is one of my favourite dramas of all time,” he continued. “It’s about a girl who dreams of becoming a professional pastry chef and goes to patisserie school, where the best student in class, played by Min Lee Know, bullies her. Spoiler alert: they fall in love at the end!”

Eren wasn’t sure why Marco was telling him all this and why he thought Eren would watch this show someday that he had to announce a spoiler alert. Also, even though he wasn’t a fan of romance series in general, that sounded like a terrible plot to him. Why would anyone fall in love with their bully?

For the next twenty-five minutes, Marco made Eren watch a compilation of all of Min Lee Know’s most romantic (or creepiest, in Eren’s opinion) lines from Boys Over Flour. By the end of it, Eren wanted to stab himself in the eyes with a fork.

He hoped someday, if he and [Name] did get together, she would appreciate all of the effort he had taken to woo her.

“Are we done?” he asked, standing up from the couch. “Can I go now?”

But Krista pushed him back down. “That was for Marco’s training,” she said, “but now we’re going to be doing mine. We’re going to be watching a compilation of Edmund Sullen’s best lines from _Daybreak_.”

“Daybreak?” he frowned. He didn’t want to watch any more YouTube compilations. He wanted to go to the bathroom and soak his head in bleach, to clear out everything he had just watched.

Krista raised her eyebrows. “You don’t know what Daybreak is? That movie about a human girl who falls in love with a vampire? The one that was all the rage a few years ago?”

“Um,” he said hesitantly. “No?”

She blinked for a few seconds, like she couldn’t quite believe him. Then she flashed him a determined smile. “Well. No matter. That’s what I’m here for, right?”

Remember how Eren had said he wanted to stab himself in the eyes with a fork and wash his brains with bleach before?

Well, after watching a YouTube clip of what was probably the dullest vampire romance ever with the whiniest characters he had ever come across, Eren now wanted to poke forks into Krista’s eyes and bleach her brains for actually watching that stuff _for fun_.

He knew that Marco and Krista were trying to help, but he hoped that [Name] and he would never, _ever_ have a romance like that one.

“Okay, so,” said Krista, after switching off the television. “We’ve taught you how to utilise your natural possessiveness like Min Lee Know does. We’ve taught you how to show off your chivalrous and protective side like Edmund Sullen does. But there’s one last thing you have to learn. The _kabe-don_.”

“The _what_?” Eren yelped. “There’s more?”

She clicked her fingers. “Marco, if you will.”

Marco stood up. He held Eren’s arm and led him to the wall on which the television was mounted.

“Marco?” Eren said, confused. “What are you doing?”

Marco didn’t respond. He positioned the Eren so he was leaning against the wall, while Marco faced him. Without warning, he slammed his palm into the wall, hitting the spot next to Eren’s head.

Eren jumped. Of all the things he had been expecting Marco to do, _that_ was definitely not it.

“Well?” said Krista triumphantly. “How do you feel? Is your heart fluttering?”

“No,” he replied. He was afraid and was resisting his instincts to punch Marco in the face. “I’m scared.”

Krista and Marco laughed as the latter led him back to the couch. “The kabe-don is the art of slamming your arm into the wall to turn on your love interest,” she explained. “If you can pull that off with [Name], she’s as good as yours.”

He could not envision any possible scenario where he would do that to [Name], but he still nodded.

“Well?” Marco said. “You’ve watched a K-drama compilation, a Daybreak compilation and you’ve seen the kabe-don up close. What have you learnt?”

Eren thought hard. “Oh, I know,” he said finally. “I need to bully [Name] and dump a sack of flour on her head to get her to notice me.”

“What? No, why would you…” Marco said in disbelief.

“I need to creep up to her room at night and watch her sleep,” he continued. “And wear lots of glitter.”

Krista frowned. “That’s not…”

“If I scare her by slamming her into a wall, she’ll like me,” he finished.

Marco and Krista facepalmed.

“We’re going to have to start all over again,” she sighed.

***

You placed your books into your bag as the other students left the classroom after last period.

“English Club might run late today,” Mina said, as she watched you tuck your laptop under your arm. “So I probably won’t see you at dinner. We’re still on for homework later though, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” you nodded. “See you then.”

Mina left, giving you one last wave. Swinging your backpack over your shoulder, you were about to leave the classroom when you heard a voice behind you. “[Name]!”

You turned around to find Eren Yeager standing there, a small smile on his face.

Your face immediately heated up as you remembered what had happened last week. You had not spoken to him since then. Thankfully, he had stopped dressing like a delinquent and was now back to normal, with his hair combed neatly and uniform worn correctly (his shirt was not tucked in, though you couldn’t blame him – most students’ shirts untucked themselves by the end of the day). But, best of all, was that he was no longer wearing that _awful_ cologne, and you could stand to be in his presence for more than five minutes.

“Hey,” you said, returning his smile. “What’s up?”

“Are you going to your club meeting?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“I’ll walk you there,” he said, looking at you eagerly.

You frowned. Eren had never volunteered to walk you to your club meetings before. In fact, none of your friends walked you to club meetings, besides Mina when it was on her way and Ymir when she wanted something. So why was _he_ doing it?

“Are you sure?” you said finally. “Don’t you have soccer practice now?”

He shrugged. “I can be a little late. I’m sure Nanaba won’t mind.”

You glanced at him sideways, trying to deduce his intentions, but he continued to look at you with that hopeful smile. Eventually, you found yourself giving in. Smiling back, you said, “Well. If you insist.”

Eren grinned as the two of you began walking towards the door. You lifted your arm to open the door, but he immediately jumped in front of you and pushed it open. “After you.”

“Oh. Um, thanks, I guess?” you said uncertainly, a little taken aback but nevertheless flattered by his actions.

“All good,” he said, the two of you walking down the hallway. Suddenly he looked at your arm and noticed you were carrying something, “Oh! Your laptop! I’ll hold it for you!”

You stiffened. That laptop was your baby, your lifeline, and you weren’t sure how you felt about letting someone else hold it, someone you admittedly didn’t know very well. “That’s okay,” you said hastily. “You don’t have to.”

Eren shook his head. “Let me carry it for you,” he insisted.

“I’m capable of carrying my own laptop, thanks,” you resisted, slightly annoyed by his forcefulness.

His face grew hard. “Give me the laptop, [Name],” he said, and without warning, it was yanked from under your arm and placed within his.

You just blinked at him, very confused. You weren’t pleased with his behaviour, but you didn’t want to start an argument, especially after not speaking to him for over a week now. “Fine, whatever,” you mumbled.

A silence fell over you. You were trying, and failing, to understand his strange behaviour. After his antics last week, he was here again, looking normal. Except now he was being both chivalrous and a jerk and you couldn’t explain why.

Oh well. At least he _looked_ normal, right? You glanced at the green sweater covering his arms and chest. Although you had to admit, you missed his bad boy look. Yes, you weren’t blind; you had eyes and knew an attractive man when you saw one, especially an attractive man with a body like his.

You pushed those thoughts aside, instead thinking of something to say that would break the awkward silence. Fortunately, he spoke first.

“How’s the project coming along?” Eren asked, his tone light.

You brightened up at the mention of your project. “Pretty good, actually,” you replied. “And thanks again for everything. The information you gave has helped a lot.”

He smiled at you. “Glad to help. Be sure to let me know if you need anything else.”

You nodded. You were almost at your classroom. He handed your laptop back to you, his fingers brushing over the Pokémon stickers on its sleeve.

“Thanks,” you nodded. “And thanks for the offer. I’ll actually be doing some more in-depth research soon. Like watching your practices and stuff.” Then you glanced up at him, not sure how he would take it. “I mean, if that’s okay with you! And Nanaba! And all the other members, of course!”

But Eren’s eyes had widened. “Really?” he said breathlessly. “Do you really mean that? You’ll come watch me play?”

You laughed. “Well, yeah, I will. That’s kinda how research works. So, um, is it okay if I come see you the next time, then?”

He looked like he wasn’t breathing anymore.

You waved your hand in front of his face, worried. “Eren? You okay? I mean, you could always say no, I can get –”

“No!” he said quickly, interrupting you. Your face fell. You weren’t expecting to be rejected that quickly.

“I mean,” Eren continued frantically. “I mean, no, I don’t want to say no! My answer is yes!”

“Huh?”

He took a deep breath. “What I mean is, yes. You’re welcome to watch me play anytime, [Name].”

That was a relief. You had been banking on the Soccer Club letting you continue using them as a reference and didn’t have a backup plan in case they said no.

“Thanks for that,” you smiled. “I’ll be starting off small at first, just watching practices and taking notes and stuff, but then I’d like to move on to talking to all of you, getting to know the guys on your team…and so on…”

You trailed off as you noticed the expression on Eren’s face change. His whole face darkened and his body went rigid.

“You’re going to talk to the others?” he whispered hoarsely.

“Um,” you said hesitantly. “Yes? Like I don’t know the members, so I was hoping you would introduce me. I already know some of them, like Gelgar, Henning, Floch, of course –”

Eren’s entire body language changed. He turned to face you, forcing you to walk backward until your back hit the wall. Without warning, he slammed his palm into the wall.

He now had you enclosed on one end with his arm, while his body trapped you in the front. His eyes were blazing and his breathing was heavy. He leaned forward, his knee between your legs and nose inches away from yours.

“What did you just say?” he whispered, his tone dangerous.

You did not respond. Your heart was pounding fast, more out of fear than anything else. You clutched your laptop with both arms as you continued to watch him.

His eyes roamed over your body, resting on your skirt. You began to feel self-conscious; you weren’t wearing stockings or tights today and your uniform skirt ended above your knees with your legs on full display.

“You’re going to show up to soccer practice,” he whispered, “in _that_ …to talk to the others…and _Floch_.” He spat the last word out like it was something vile.

You had always known that Eren had a bit of an angry streak, but you had never seen him like this. As scared as you were, you stood your ground. You weren’t going to let him push you around.

“Yes I am,” you said defensively. “What’s with that tone? Do you have a problem with my uniform or something? And I don’t intend to speak to Floch specifically, just –”

You stopped talking when he punched the wall behind you, hard enough to make you flinch.

“Don’t come,” he said, in that same low, dangerous tone.

“What?” you said indignantly. He had said it was okay before, why did he change his mind? Just because he apparently didn’t like your legs? “Why can’t I –”

“YOU STUPID BITCH!” he yelled, his loud voice and harsh words causing you to flinch again. “DON’T YOU GET IT?”

A few members of your club came out of the classroom to see what the ruckus was about. Tears began to well in your eyes.

“IF YOU SHOW UP LIKE THAT,” Eren continued to shout, paying no attention to the people watching him, “he…he…”

But you didn’t wait to hear what “he” would do. Clutching your laptop as hard as you could, you ran away from the scene, tears flowing down your face.

***

**TITAN TIMES**

**November 24**

| 

**Issue 778**  
  
---|---  
  
**ASK SONNY AND BEAN**

_Hey there, Titans! Is school stressing you out? Are you having trouble with your friends? Do you need advice on that special someone? Has your body been going through changes? Well, you’ve come to the right place! We’re Sonny and Bean, and we’re here to answer any questions you have about high school life! So, feel free to ask us anything – and we do mean anything – and we’ll answer your questions every week, right here, on the Titan Times!_

**To ask us a question: email us at** [ **asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd** ](mailto:asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd)

Today’s featured questions:

_Hi Sonny and Bean,_

_I want to help my friend out with the girl he likes. He’s messed things up in the past, so I was hoping he would be more romantic this time around. Any tips on wooing a girl?_

_Freckles_

Greetings, Freckles!

It’s sweet that you’re helping your friend out, and we wish him all the best! Here are our top tips for courting someone:

  * Express your interest: It’s best if your friend lets her know he’s interested, either subtly or directly. This will help avoid any miscommunication later!
  * Make friends: Your friend should attempt to make friends with the girl he likes and her friends, too. This will help her see him favourably and her friends can put in a good word for him!
  * Drop hints: If your friend hasn’t already expressed his interest, he can drop subtle hints that he’s interested in her. This can take the form of light comments (“You look beautiful today!”) or gifts (flowers and chocolate can work here).
  * Overexposure is a thing: Make sure your friend isn’t spending too much time around her; there’s no greater turn-off than desperation.
  * Confession: Perhaps the simplest and most efficient way of courting someone is a direct confession of feelings, followed by a simple “Do you feel the same way?” or “Would you like to pursue this?” We can’t stress enough how much we recommend this method!



Love, Sonny and Bean

_Hello!_

_I’m just wondering if you had any advice on brooding boys? I have a friend who has this brooding, “Byronic hero” thing going on, and I’m trying to get him to bring it out so he impresses the girl he likes. Any suggestion?_

_Geographia_

Greetings, Geographia!

Since you’re aware of the term “Byronic Hero”, we’re also hoping you know that their brooding personality doesn’t do well in real life and more often than not is likely to get them rejected.

That’s why we’re advising you to go for a different approach with your friend. If he has a brooding personality and hasn’t attracted this girl yet, that might have something to do with it. Maybe you could ask him to tone it down and be gentler? Most people generally respond favourably to kindness and positive body language. Once this girl sees a different side to him, we’re sure she’ll want to get to know him better!

Love, Sonny and Bean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes. Did not mean for that last scene to come off as yandere as it is.
> 
> Eren doesn't like sharing.


	5. Competition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa and Jean take advantage of your fight with Eren to step in. You and Eren think about what's next for you.
> 
> Meanwhile, another group of people takes an interest in your relationship...

**You** : Hey Mikasa

 **You** : How are you?

 **Mikasa** : Who’s this?

 **You** : Um

 **You** : It’s Jean

 **You** : Why don’t you have my number saved? I’ve texted you heaps of times before

 **Mikasa** : What do you want

 **You** : Okay so

 **You** : I don’t know if you’ve heard but

 **You** : The others are teaming up to help Yeager with his stupid crush

 **You** : Like Reiner and Ymir for example

 **Mikasa** : And

 **You** : And I was thinking

 **You** : Why don’t we team up

 **You** : To take them down

 **You** : I know you hate this as much as I do

 **Mikasa** : No

 **You** : But

 **Mikasa** : I don’t want to talk about this

 **Mikasa** : Go away Jean

***

**You** : Armin, help

 **Armin** : Are you okay, Mikasa?

 **Armin** : What happened?

 **You** : I just

 **You** : I don’t get it

 **You** : Why

 **You** : I’ve always been there for him

 **You** : Am I not enough

 **Armin** : I’m sorry Mikasa

 **Armin** : We’ve discussed this

 **Armin** : I know you’re hurting

 **Armin** : But agonising over this in your head isn’t going to help

 **Armin** : You’ve never confessed to him

 **Armin** : You’ve never done anything about your feelings

 **Armin** : You can’t blame him for finding someone else in the meantime

 **You** : If I had confessed to him

 **You** : Would it be me instead of her?

 **You** : Would it be me making him smile like that?

 **Armin** : I don’t know

 **Armin** : But if you’re not going to confess

 **Armin** : You have to let him be happy

 **Armin** : It’s only right

 **You** : I

 **You** : I know I’m supposed to be happy for them

 **You** : But god I hope they get into a fight or something

 **You** : And never speak to each other again

***

**You** : Is it true

 **Marco** : Is what true?

 **You** : That you and Krista tried to get Yeager to impress [Name] by making him watch that Korean show

 **Marco** : Kind of?

 **Marco** : I showed him a compilation

 **Marco** : He hated it, but after making him watch it three times he finally got the idea

 **Marco** : Don’t know if it worked yet or not

 **You** : Ugh

 **You** : I can’t even with how seriously you guys are taking this

 **Marco** : We’re just trying to help him Jean

 **Marco** : I don’t get why you’re so upset about this

 **Marco** : You seemed happy enough for Eren when he first told us about his feelings

 **Marco** : What changed?

 **Marco** : Unless you have feelings for either Eren or [Name] or both, this shouldn’t be bothering you so much

 **You** : Please

 **You** : Get your head out of your ass Marco

 **You** : Yeah I didn’t think too much of it when he told us

 **You** : But then

 **You** : Did you see how excited everyone was when they found out

 **You** : Like the girls and all, creating that group chat and shit

 **You** : No one helped ME out when I said I liked Mikasa?

 **You** : No one made a group chat for ME

 **You** : Why on earth would I help Yeager get a girlfriend before I do?

 **You** : It isn’t fair

 **Marco** : Oh Jean

 **Marco** : All I’ll say is

 **Marco** : I hope you get past this and learn to be happy for other people

 **You** : Fucking Yeager

 **You** : And I hope he dies a virgin

***

Your phone vibrated loudly, interrupting your sobs.

Wiping your tears with the back of your hand, you pulled your phone out of your pocket. It couldn’t be Eren, he didn’t have your number, so it would be safe to answer.

It was a text from Rashad, the president of your club. He had seen the debacle between you and Eren Yeager outside the classroom and had guessed you would be upset. He wanted to let you know it was okay if you had the day off from club activities.

You sent him a grateful thumbs up emoji and tucked your phone back into your pocket, before resuming your crying session in the restroom.

What the fuck was wrong with Eren Yeager? You couldn’t figure him out at all. He had been so sweet and nice to you the first two times you had spoken to him, at the infirmary and then the library. Yet his behaviour had changed last week and had taken a complete 180 today.

And the worst part was you had _no_ idea of what had gotten him so upset. He had been behaving weirdly before, as you had noticed with your laptop today and the incident last week, but you had chalked that up to one of his quirks. But now you didn’t think there was anything “quirky” about scaring you like that and calling you a stupid bitch.

Was this one of those situations where you met a person who seemed nice at first but then slowly revealed what a jerk they were? You could believe that, it seemed to explain things. But Eren was well-liked in class; he was outgoing, had two best friends and a wider social circle than you did. Surely all of those people wouldn’t be hanging around him if he was such a big jerk?

And what was with the way he had been looking at your skirt? It was almost as if he didn’t want you to be wearing it, and it was the same skirt that most girls in your school wore. Was he one of those super conservative people that didn’t like women baring their legs? Yet most girls wore that skirt, including his best friend Mikasa, and you had never seen him telling _her_ off for it.

_You stupid bitch. Don’t you get it? If you show up like that, he…_

And who was this mysterious “he”?

Your tears returned as remembered his harsh tone and horrible words.

Halfway through your crying session, you heard the door open as someone entered and used one of the toilets to your left. You immediately stopped crying; you didn’t want anyone to find you here. Trying your best to conceal your hiccupping sobs, you went quiet as the person washed and dried their hands. You waited for them to leave, but they didn’t; they walked towards the stall you were in and knocked on the door loudly.

You stayed quiet, hoping they would get the hint and leave. You didn’t know how they knew you were there, but you had to get rid of them.

“[Name]?” the voice said, and you immediately recognised it as Mikasa. “I know you’re in there. I heard you crying. Open the door, please.”

You grimaced. You didn’t want to face Mikasa – she was the last person you wanted to talk to about Eren. But she continued pounding on your stall door, showing no signs of giving up. With a sigh, you opened the door and said, “What?”

Mikasa studied your face, taking in your tears and stuffy nose. “What happened?” she asked.

You looked away. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Does it have something to do with Eren?” she persisted.

At the sound of that name, you broke down crying again.

As you cried, Mikasa patted you on the back. It was evident that she wasn’t comfortable with the situation, but was trying her best to calm you down. You appreciated that.

“Was he being a jerk to you?” she asked.

You looked up, surprised. “How did you…”

Mikasa sighed. “I thought so. Eren can be mean sometimes.”

“‘Mean’ is an understatement,” you mumbled. “He’s a downright _bitch_.”

She nodded. “Unfortunately, he’s always been that way. He gets angry easily and can be cruel when he is.”

Oh. “How…how do you and Armin tolerate it?” you asked. “That’s a horrible situation to be in.”

Mikasa studied your face again. Then she said, “We’re his childhood friends. We don’t have a choice.” Her grey eyes met yours. “But you do.”

You looked away. She had a point. Now that you knew what kind of person Eren was, you didn’t have to associate yourself with him anymore.

“My project…”

“I hear Trost High has a good soccer team, too,” she added. “He mentioned that they kicked his ass in their most recent game.”

You nodded. Trost High wasn’t too far away from Titan Academy; you could probably get permission from their principal to do your project with them on the weekends. Sure, it would make things more inconvenient for you, but it was definitely better than facing Eren again.

“Yeah,” you said finally. “You’re right. It’s better if I keep my distance from him.”

***

“ _Your beautiful black hair_ …” Jean sang, strumming his guitar.

He paused. No, that chord sounded all wrong. Trying a different one, he strummed again, “ _Your beautiful black hair…_ ”

He nodded. Yep, much better. Jumping off the bed, he picked up his music book from his desk and climbed back on. After writing down the chord progression, he picked up his guitar again.

“ _Your piercing grey –_ ” he began.

But before he could finish the line, the door flew open and Eren stormed into their room, slamming the door shut behind him.

He rolled his eyes. He could already tell from the expression on his roommate’s face that Eren was _pissed_ , but he didn’t care. He strummed again.

“ _Your piercing –_ ”

He was interrupted by Eren throwing himself on his bed, arms crossed in anger as he sat up and stared at a spot on the wall.

Jean rolled his eyes again.

“ _Your –_ ”

His roommate sighed loudly, interrupting him for the third time now.

Frustrated, Jean threw his guitar on the bed. “What is your problem, Yeager? Can’t a guy write a song in peace around here?”

Eren buried his face in his hands. “I messed up,” he groaned.

“You always mess up,” Jean corrected. “Nothing new here.”

“Not this time.” Eren hugged his knees, resting his head on top of them. “I messed up _bad_.”

Jean didn’t say anything. He was mildly interested in knowing what Eren had done, but not enough to ask.

Eren, however, continued talking, “I lost my temper. I yelled at her. I said some bad stuff…and I’m pretty sure she hates me now.”

Jean got very irritated at that. He was already irritated that Eren had a crush and everyone in class seemed to ship it, and now to hear that Eren was screwing things up for himself was making him mad. “Sounds like you brought this upon yourself,” he said. “Do you expect me to feel sorry for you? Because I don’t.”

“I just…” Eren whispered. “I don’t know what to do…”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Jean picked up his guitar. “She doesn’t like you that way. Stop simping over her and leave her alone. You’re going to die a virgin, anyway.”

“She doesn’t?” Eren replied, his throat tight. “But…she…”

“And stop telling me about your problems. I could _not_ care less.” Picking up his music book with his other hand, Jean left the room.

***

 **Mikasa** : Jean

 **You** : Oh, so you FINALLY saved my number

 **You** : How can I help, Mikasa?

 **Mikasa** : Is Eren in his room

 **Mikasa** : He’s not picking up his phone

 **Mikasa** : And the door’s locked

 **Mikasa** : I just want to check on him

 **Mikasa** : To see if he’s okay after that fight with her

 **You** : Honestly, why do you care?

 **Mikasa** : Is he in there or not

 **Mikasa** : Are you in there with him

 **You** : Yeah he’s there. Or at least, he was ten minutes ago when I left

 **You** : Leave him alone

 **You** : He only cares about himself and his shitty problems

 **You** : Why are you wasting your time?

 **You** : Forget about him

 **Mikasa** : It’s not that easy

 **Mikasa** : I’ve known him since forever

 **Mikasa** : My emotions are heavily dependent on him

 **Mikasa** : And if he does get together with [Name]

 **Mikasa** : I’m…not going to like it

 **You** : That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you

 **You** : We need to work together to make sure it doesn’t happen

 **Mikasa** : …

 **Mikasa** : I’ll think about it

 **Mikasa** : At least go back to your room

 **Mikasa** : And open the door for me

 **You** : Fine whatever

***

“Eren?” Mikasa said plaintively, knocking on the door for the third time that day. “Are you in there?”

As expected, Eren did not answer. However, this time, Jean opened the door and ushered her in.

“He’s in a bad mood,” he said, jerking his head towards Eren’s bed, where the boy sat.

Mikasa nodded and walked towards Eren. He was sitting up, his arms around his legs and his forehead resting on his knees.

Her heart broke when she saw how despondent he was. They had been friends for over seven years now and she had never seen him like this. Eren had faced sadness before, she knew, but he had never responded by shutting himself away from the world – from her – like this.

“Eren?” she said softly, as she sat down on the bed next to him. She could see his phone light up beside him – it was on mute, and he was receiving a flurry of texts from people she recognised as soccer club members, all wondering where he was.

She slowly placed a hand on his arm. He did not move.

“Eren,” she whispered. “It’s me. Mikasa. Talk to me.”

Eren didn’t answer. He curled himself up even tighter, ignoring her completely.

Mikasa shot a look at Jean, as if to say, _why isn’t he speaking to me?_ Jean, who had been watching her from his own bed, looked away.

“Eren,” she tried again, shaking his arm lightly. “Please…we’re all worried about you…”

He jerked his arm, trying to shake her off. Mikasa withdrew her hand quickly. She didn’t want to upset him more than he already was.

“Let me help you,” she whispered. “I…I can fix things…for you…”

“Can you?” he whispered suddenly, and Mikasa’s eyes filled with tears on hearing the sadness in his voice. “Can you fix _me?_ Can you make it so I’m not running my mouth and screaming at her? Can you fix things so she doesn’t hate me anymore?”

She blinked back her tears. “I…no..” she replied. “But…if she can’t handle your temper…she’s not right for you, Eren. You should forget about her.”

Eren shook his head. “She shouldn’t have to handle my temper,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t be losing it in the first place. It’s my fault. I’m the one who called her a stupid bitch. I…” He trailed off and sighed. “Leave me alone.”

Mikasa’s heart ached. She couldn’t bear to see him like this.

Hastily wiping the tears off her face, she got off his bed and left the room, walking as fast as she could.

***

“Yo,” Jean said.

Eren didn’t reply. He had been seated in the same position for over six hours now. Jean knew he hadn’t eaten or left his bed since then. He wasn’t even sure if Eren had used the bathroom all evening.

He sighed. He absolutely did _not_ want to cheer his roommate up; he could think of a million other things he would rather be doing. But he still found himself walking up to Eren’s bed and tossing a brown bag at him.

“It’s a cheeseburger,” Jean said. “Armin said it was your favourite.”

He pulled off his school uniform tie and threw it on his bed. He heard Eren mumble, “I can’t eat cheeseburgers. I’m on a diet.”

Jean rolled his eyes. He had forgotten that the Chee-burg bastard was always on some kind of weird diet or the other – he should’ve kept that in mind when he picked up that burger for him.

But, on the bright side, Eren was finally speaking. And Jean had his attention.

“Listen,” he said, trying to sound casual. “You’re a dick.”

Eren groaned. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

Jean pursed his lips. “Well. At least you’re not _completely_ self-absorbed.” Taking a deep breath, he said, “You need to apologise to [Name].”

His roommate looked up at him, eyes wide.

“I don’t know what exactly happened between you two,” Jean continued, “other than you lost your temper and apparently called her a stupid bitch. But I’m sure she’s just as upset about it as you are. She didn’t come down to dinner, either.”

He saw Eren swallow hard. “She…she shouldn’t be…” he said. “I…I’m like this because…I like her…and I hurt her. She…she hates me. She shouldn’t…”

“Well, she obviously doesn’t, or she wouldn’t be this sad, would she?” Jean said impatiently. “You need to man. The fuck. Up. And talk to her. And apologise.”

He saw Eren bury his face in his chest again. “How?” he said.

Jean rolled his eyes again. He knew Eren was dumb, but he didn’t take him to be this braindead either. “Saying, ‘I’m sorry I yelled at you and called you a stupid bitch’ might work, for starters. Just have a normal, honest conversation with her. Get her a card or something, I don’t know. Surely even _you_ should be able to think of something.”

Eren groaned again. “Ugh. I hate you, Kirstein. And I hate that you’re right. I have to apologise to her. It’s the least I could do.”

However, Jean was surprised when Eren buried his face in his knees again, instead of running out of the dorm and straight to [Name]’s room. “Well?” he said. “What are you waiting for? Do you need [Name] to send you an invitation in the mail, asking you to come say sorry?”

Eren shook his head. “I’ll do it,” he said in a small voice. “But not today. I – I can’t face her yet.”

Jean snorted. “Well, whatever,” he said. He began unbuttoning his shirt, thinking hard.

It was true that he wanted Eren to apologise to [Name], but he hadn’t said why. He didn’t mention what had brought about his change of heart, neither had Eren questioned it.

He thought back to earlier that evening, when Mikasa had tried to talk to Eren, only to be rejected. Watching her had given him an epiphany.

He was such a fool. He should have been helping Eren all along. He should’ve been trying to get Eren and [Name] together, like his friends were. True, he still didn’t want him to have a girlfriend before he did, but the girl Jean liked was the one who was interested in Eren. And Eren was interested in [Name].

If he got Eren and [Name] out of the way, Mikasa would have nowhere to run but straight into his arms.

He grinned to himself. It was a messy love triangle/square/whatever, but he could take full advantage of it.

***

A knock sounded on your door, interrupting your anime marathon.

You swallowed the potato chip as quickly as you could. Your room was a mess – or at least, your side of the room was a mess. Empty bags of potato chips covered the floor beside your bed. You were pretty bad yourself, dressed in your comfiest nightclothes, with your hair messed up and crumbs on your front. There were dried streaks of tears on your face.

You had not had dinner that night, instead emptying the vending machine downstairs of all the potato chips you could find and bingeing on them as you rewatched your favourite anime. You hadn’t told anyone about your argument with Eren, and after your talk with Mikasa, you had gone straight to your room.

So who was that knocking on your door? It couldn’t be Mina, she had her own key.

“Who is it?” you called.

But the person did not answer and instead knocked harder at the sound of your voice.

With a sigh, you got out of bed. You brushed the crumbs off your front and put on your slippers, before walking to the door and opening it.

Mikasa stood there, her face showing no emotion as usual. “[Name]. Can I come in?”

“Sure,” you said, opening the door wider for her to enter. You didn’t particularly want to talk to Mikasa; your talk this evening had left you with a bad taste in your mouth. You didn’t know why you were so upset and why the thought of never speaking to Eren again bothered you, but you chose not to think about it. It was for your own good, as Mikasa had said. She had tried to comfort you earlier, and while she hadn’t done the best job, you still appreciated her efforts.

“You’re a mess,” she said. It wasn’t a question or an insult; it was a fact.

“Yeah,” you said, as you both sat down, her on Mina’s bed and you on yours. “I…I can’t stop thinking about what happened today. I looked up Trost High’s soccer team, and –”

Mikasa interrupted you by shaking her head. “Sorry, [Name],” she said, and you saw remorse in her eyes. “I need you to do something for me.”

You blinked. Mikasa wasn’t in the habit of asking favours, not from you at least. “What is it?”

She took a deep breath. “I need you to give Eren another chance,” she said.

Your jaw went slack. Whatever you thought she was going to say, _this_ was definitely not it.

“But…” you said. “This evening, when we spoke, you said…”

She nodded. “I know. And I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. But you have to forgive him.”

You didn’t say anything. You laid down on your bed and stared at the ceiling, waiting for her to continue.

“I…” Mikasa usually didn’t show much emotion, but you could hear the sadness in her voice. “Eren isn’t a bad person. He’s…awkward. He has anger issues. When he doesn’t know what to do, his first reaction is usually to get angry. But he means well. And he does regret it later.”

You snorted. “Doesn’t seem like it. He hasn’t apologised or anything.”

“Yes,” she said. “But he will. I’m sure of it. You mean a lot to him, [Name].”

That surprised you. “Why?” you said. “We don’t know each other very well. I’ve only spoken to him a handful of times…I’m not even sure if we’re _friends_.”

Mikasa was silent for a while. Finally, she said, “Eren hasn’t made any…new friends in a while. You’re the first person he has gotten to know lately. I’m sure he wants to…mend his relationship with you.”

You said nothing.

“Ultimately, he’s just an immature, inexperienced teenager,” she continued. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing most of the time. He screws up, often, and he gets into trouble, but…he’s learning.”

You rolled your eyes. “What is he inexperienced at?” you asked. “Friendship? How to treat people decently? Is he, like, ten?”

Mikasa did not answer your question. “All I’m saying,” she said, “is that you give him another chance when he apologises to you. It would mean everything to him. Eren usually learns from his mistakes. If you forgive him…he won’t let it happen again. With you or anyone else.”

You were starting to feel slightly guilty. The way Mikasa spoke about Eren made him sound like a sad little boy who just wanted to make friends.

You thought of his big, hopeful eyes as he offered to walk you to your club. You thought of the way he automatically smiled whenever he saw you.

“I’m not promising anything,” you said. “But, if he _does_ apologise, I’ll consider forgiving him.”

You saw her nod out of the corner of your eye. “Thank you, [Name],” she said. “As his friend, I really appreciate it.”

A thought struck you.

“You like him, don’t you?” you said. “You have feelings for him. That’s why you’re trying so hard to help him.”

You saw her shake her head. “He…doesn’t think of me that way,” she said. “I…we’re friends, so…I want him to be happy…”

Why did you care? The nature of their relationship was none of your business. Yet, you could not stop the wave of relief that washed over you at her words.

“I see,” you said. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Thank you,” she replied. “Even…even if he doesn’t see me that way, I will always want him to be happy.” She paused. “Even if it’s not with me.”

You sat up. You didn’t know what to say. You wanted Mikasa to be happy, but you were also relieved to hear that Eren wasn’t interested in her. Which was weird, because you didn’t care. Right?

“For example,” she said, her eyes meeting yours, “say if, someday, he found someone he liked, I would be happy for him. Because that person would make him happy.”

You smiled. “That’s wonderful, Mikasa. That’s a sweet way of looking at it.”

‘Also,” she continued, not taking her eyes off you, “if, hypothetically, that person broke his heart, I would not hesitate to _break every bone in their body._ ”

Even though you knew her words weren’t directed at you, you gulped. That felt like a threat. Was it a threat? You weren’t sure. Perhaps she, in her own overprotective way, was trying to get you to talk to Eren again.

You slumped onto your bed again. You thought of Eren Yeager and his green eyes and eager smile. You thought of his readiness to help you. You thought of how patiently he answered all of your questions, even though he wouldn’t be getting anything out of it.

Despite what he’d done to you earlier, you didn’t hate him. You knew whoever he ended up liking would be a very lucky person.

***

“Is it just me or has everything been so _boring_ lately?” Oluo said.

The seven of them – him, Petra, Hange, Eld, Levi, Gunther and Mike – were currently in Petra and Hange’s room as they worked on their homework. It was routine for them to get together after club activities, get homework out of the way and then get dinner together.

“What do you mean?” Eld said. “We’ve been so busy lately, what with exams coming up next month, club meetings and so on.”

“And don’t forget the entrance exams coming up in two months,” Levi added. “We really need to start prepping for them properly.”

“Oooh, and the Christmas party next month!” Petra said, shooting Levi a sly glance. “We get to see Levi be Santa!”

Everyone else laughed, except Levi and Hange. Even Mike was smiling.

“Hange was so upset when you got chosen to be Santa,” Gunther said, grinning at Hange. “Isn’t that right, Hange?”

Everyone turned to face Hange, who was lost in thought, staring at her phone. She had clearly not been paying attention to the conversation.

“Everything okay?” Mike said.

Levi poked her in the arm and she looked up with a start. “Hm? Oh, yeah,” she said distractedly. When everyone continued to watch her, she said, “Do any of you read the _Titan Times?_ The weekly school newsletter?”

“Sometimes, yeah,” Oluo nodded. “When I have nothing to read on the toilet, I usually look it up.”

Everyone gave him a look. Levi shot a wary glance at Oluo’s phone beside him.

“What?” he said defensively. “Everyone needs something to read while taking a dump, okay? Anyway, what were you saying, Hange?”

“Kinda agree with you on that one,” Hange shrugged. “Yeah, so. Do you guys know what _Ask Sonny and Bean_ is?”

“It’s the advice column section, isn’t it?” Gunther frowned. “I have heard of it. Their advice isn’t bad, surprisingly.”

“Right?” Hange said, looking at him approvingly. “Anyway, check out the weird questions that have been featured lately.”

She handed them her phone, and they all began scrolling through the past month’s advice column questions.

“Well,” said Levi, after handing Hange her phone back. “They’re all about the same thing. And it’s quite obvious who they’re referring to.”

“Yeah,” said Petra. “It’s Eren Yeager, isn’t it?” She turned to Hange. “The one who’s friends with your cousin Sasha and was there at her birthday party. Guy who plays soccer. He’s the only one I can think of who fits this description.”

“Yeah, it’s him,” Eld said. “Not sure who the girl is, though.”

“It’s cute how all of his friends want to help him out,” Oluo said. He crossed his arms. “I wish you lot had helped _me_ with the person I like.”

Everyone ignored him.

“Look at this one,” Mike said. He was on his phone, scrolling through the newsletters again. “There are two people who want to get him drunk and they’ve been advised to do it at the Christmas party.”

“ _Hypothetically_ advised,” Hange corrected.

Levi snorted. “No prizes for guessing who _those_ two are.”

“Well,” Eld said. “Since they pulled it off _so well_ the last time,” he shot Hange a look, who returned a sheepish grin, “they’re definitely going to be able to pull it off again. I bet that Eren or the girl or both get drunk at this party.”

“Oooh, we’re placing bets then, are we?” Hange said, interested. “I want in on this. I bet that they’ll _kiiiiiiiiiss!_ ” She made a smoochy face at Levi, who slapped her on the lips with his notebook.

“I like to believe in love and things actually working out,” Petra said simply. “I bet that they’ll get together at the party! They’ll be boyfriend and girlfriend by the end of the night!” She sighed happily.

“And I bet there’ll be a long shitty speech involved,” Levi added. “And we’ll all be forced to listen to it. When I think of things that’ll make the night worse, that’s what comes to mind, so that’s my pick.”

“Hmm,” Gunther said, stroking his chin. “You guys have covered the obvious ones already, what else is there? Oh, I know. Couples give each other gifts for Christmas, don’t they? I think he’ll get her a gift or something. Or she’ll get him one. Don’t think she likes him back, but yeah, it could happen. Or, better yet, they’ll _both_ give each other gifts.”

“Who’s left?” Eld said. “Oh, Oluo and Mike. Oluo, what do you think?”

Oluo struck a pose like he was meditating. “Let’s see,” he said, trying to sound like a psychic. “I’m communicating with the spirits…connection established…the spirits tell me that…there’ll be _cake_ involved.”

“Cake?” Petra frowned. “That’s an…unusual prediction…”

Oluo held up his hands. “The spirits have spoken. We cannot question their words.”

“What about you, Mike?” Hange said.

Mike shrugged. “Do you guys remember what happened at the last party?”

Everyone looked away at that. They remembered all too well and didn’t want to think about it at all.

“No, I’m not referring to that,” Mike shook his head. “I’m talking about Principal Erwin Smith. He live-Tweeted the whole thing and embarrassed everyone. I bet he’ll do something similar this time. He’ll embarrass someone, and the party will be involved somehow.”

“This is a school-sanctioned event,” Levi said. “What’s he going to do, put up fifty Instagram stories of the party?” He paused and frowned. “Actually, you’re right. That _does_ sound like something he would do. I regret not betting on that.”

“Let’s do this, then,” Eld said, excited. “I’m obviously going to win.”

“Not if I can help it!” Hange grinned. “I have ways of bending the universe to my will!”

“Um, excuse you,” Oluo said. “ _I’m_ the one who contacted the spirits here. If the spirits said cake, there. Will. Be. Cake.”

Levi sighed as his friends argued amongst themselves. As confident as he was in his bet, he knew Mike was going to win.

***

**TITAN TIMES**

**December 1**

| 

**Issue 779**  
  
---|---  
  
**ASK SONNY AND BEAN**

_Hey there, Titans! Is school stressing you out? Are you having trouble with your friends? Do you need advice on that special someone? Has your body been going through changes? Well, you’ve come to the right place! We’re Sonny and Bean, and we’re here to answer any questions you have about high school life! So, feel free to ask us anything – and we do mean anything – and we’ll answer your questions every week, right here, on the Titan Times!_

**To ask us a question: email us at** [ **asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd** ](mailto:asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd)

Today’s featured questions:

_Yo,_

_So my dunce of a roommate likes this girl and all of our friends are bending over backwards trying to help him. But he’s a dumbass – it’s his first crush and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I don’t like the way everyone’s helping him and I’m afraid he might get a girlfriend before I do. How do I keep them apart?_

_Handsome Devil_

Greetings, Handsome Devil!

It sounds like you’re jealous of your roommate and the attention he’s receiving from your friends. Rather than trying to ruin things for him, maybe you need to question why you feel that way. You won’t achieve anything by destroying his relationship, and the jealousy and ill-feeling in your heart will continue to grow. Getting into a relationship is not a competition and should not be treated as such. Our advice? Take some time away from your roommate’s personal life and focus on finding a girlfriend for yourself, if you really want one.

Love, Sonny and Bean

_Hello Sonny and Bean,_

_I have feelings for my best friend, but I have recently learned that he likes someone else. Is there any way I can get him to notice me instead of her?_

_Nobody_

Greetings, Nobody!

It’s a difficult situation you’re in. On one hand, your friend has feelings for someone, which is great, but on the other, you want to be the person he has feelings for.

Have you told your friend about your feelings for him? We’re assuming you either haven’t confessed to him yet or have confessed and were rejected. If you haven’t confessed to him yet, it might be something you should consider doing. Even if he rejects you, you won’t have any regrets. And, best case scenario, he doesn’t reject you and realises his feelings for you instead! You won’t know unless you try!

If he has rejected you, then, unfortunately, that means his feelings for this girl are strong. As his friend, you should support him, as hard as it is. You may choose to cut him out of your life, but that might be too painful for both of you to deal with. Whatever you decide to do, we’re with you! Sonny and Bean have always got your back!

Love, Sonny and Bean


	6. Relationship Upgrade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina and Armin give you and Eren some advice, which Eren struggles to follow. You spend some quality time with Eren and find yourself questioning your own feelings.
> 
> (AKA the one where Mina is the only character with brain)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is super long, but it sets the stage for the next one, which is the finale. Hope it's not too annoying ( 〃▽〃)

You sighed and pulled out your phone to check the time as Shadis droned on about the quadratic formula.

Nine minutes to go.

You liked Algebra as much as the next person, but you couldn’t be bothered paying attention today. It wasn’t just today, you had been like this for a couple of days now.

Your recent fight with Eren Yeager (well, it wasn’t really a _fight,_ more like the time he insulted you and you ran away crying) had ended up affecting you more than you thought it would. You were angry at him for screaming at you, but mostly just…sad. It felt like a dark cloud had been hanging over your head since then. You had been too upset to talk about it with Mina, who understood and had given you your space.

Unfortunately, as much as you wanted to, you could not skip class. Exams were coming up soon and you had to study. And going to class meant seeing Eren. You tried avoiding him as much as possible – you would eat your meals early, before the rest of the student body showed up – and sometimes skipped them entirely. You would enter the classroom a minute before first period and leave as soon as the final bell rang.

Thankfully, Eren sat at the back, way behind you, so you weren’t forced to look at him during class. In the few times you had seen him, he looked as sad as you did, if not more. That had made you feel a little better, but your heart would still break every time your eyes met. He did not seem to be making any effort to apologise to you either, which caused the dark cloud over you to grow.

You had also stopped working on your project. Every time you pulled up your code, it would remind you of him and how he had been helping you with it. You instead spent your days hidden away in your room, watching anime and eating junk food, much to the worry of your roommate.

And the worst part? You had no idea _why_ you were like this. You didn’t know Eren well and had spoken to him maybe four times your whole life. You had argued with people before, but none of them had affected you like this.

You sighed again. Who were you kidding? You knew what it was. You missed him. You missed Eren Yeager and his green eyes and the way all of his features would light up when he saw you. You wanted so badly to go up to him and say hello and talk to him about his training and your project, but you couldn’t. Your pride wouldn’t let you make the first move. After all, it was his fault, wasn’t it? He was the one who insulted you and screamed at you and invaded your personal space and embarrassed you before your club members and…

The lunch bell rang, snapping you out of your reverie. You put your things away and waited for Shadis to leave the class, desperate to hurry off like you usually did.

But before you could leave the classroom, you heard a familiar voice call your name. “[Name]?”

You froze. It was the last person you were expecting to hear from and the last person you wanted to see.

But you forced yourself to turn around, your [eye colour] eyes meeting bright green ones. Bright green eyes you had missed terribly in the last three days. Bright green eyes that, even now, despite how sad he was, still held a small glimmer of hope.

“Hey,” Eren said.

You swallowed hard. “Hey,” you whispered.

You both looked away, unable to continue gazing at each other. Finally, he cleared his throat and held out a card, holding it with both hands.

“Please,” he said, his voice breaking. “Accept this.”

With a frown, you took the card, wondering what it could be. You studied the front. It was plain, with a small chibi drawing of the Pokémon Meowth in the centre, crying.

You managed a small smile and opened the card. Again, it was blank on the inside, with the exception of text printed in the centre.

_I’m sorry for hurting you. I should’ve kept my big Meowth shut :(_

Below that, Eren had written, _I’m sorry, [Name]. I will never hurt you again. Please forgive me – Eren._

Despite yourself, you couldn’t help bursting out with laughter at the lame pun.

Eren finally smiled. “Do you like it?” he said hopefully.

“It’s perfect,” you said, grinning at him.

And just like that, the dark cloud disappeared.

“I mean it,” he said, his expression serious. “I really am sorry, [Name]. I’m sorry for saying those hurtful words and treating you like that and shouting at you. I don’t know what came over me. I…I lose my temper sometimes, and I…no, I’m not going to make excuses. I know what I did was wrong and I regret it. A lot. I hope you’ll be able to…forgive me someday.”

You found yourself reaching forward and giving him a big hug. His body went stiff with your touch.

“Of course,” you whispered into his ear. “Of course you’re forgiven, Eren.”

Eren finally relaxed and returned your hug. You could’ve sworn you heard wolf-whistling behind you, but when you let go and turned around, Reiner was looking away.

“Thank goodness,” he said, beaming at you. “That card took me three days to find. I wanted to give you something I knew you would like, so you would have no choice but to accept it.”

You laughed again. You wanted to tell him how much you had missed him. You wanted to know how his training was going. You wanted to talk to him, about everything and anything.

But he turned around to leave, with you standing there and the card in your hands. “See you later, [Name].”

Your smile vanished, but the tiny butterflies in your stomach did not go away.

***

“That’s great, Eren,” Armin beamed with pride. “I’m so proud of you for finding the courage to apologise and for getting her that card. I bet she loved it.”

The two boys were in the library again, studying for their upcoming exams. Eren had finally managed to get Armin alone and tell him everything. He had wanted to tell Mikasa, too, but he hadn’t seen her around much lately.

Well, whatever. The fewer people he told about his girl problems, the better. His friends’ interference and bad advice had caused him to drive [Name] away, and he was not going to make the same mistake again.

He debated whether he should tell Armin that it was Kirstein’s words that had got him to finally apologise to [Name], but he changed his mind. He did not want to give Horseface any more credit than he already had.

“So…what do I do next?” he asked as he began looking up the answers to the algebra problems he had just solved. “Like, do I still try to talk to her like I was doing before, or…?”

Armin nodded. “Yes. That’s _exactly_ what you should do.”

“Huh?” Eren blinked. He hadn’t expected Armin to say that. All the others had been telling him that his approach was wrong and that [Name] was never going to like him, so to hear Armin say that made him question himself.

His best friend turned around to face him. “I’m going to ask you something, Eren,” he said. “Answer me honestly. What’s your favourite thing about [Name]?”

Eren frowned. “My…favourite thing?”

“Yes,” Armin nodded. “What do you like best about her?”

“Oh,” he replied. “Easy. Her smile, definitely. She’s got this beautiful smile that shows up whenever she sees me. It makes me feel really special, like I’m the only person who…” he turned scarlet and looked away. “Yeah. You get it.”

Armin nodded again, unable to conceal the small smirk that had formed on his face. “Did she smile when you gave her that card?”

“Yeah,” Eren said, brightening up at the memory. “She liked it. I think.”

Armin nodded. “And did she smile like that when you were walking her to her club before? Or when you sat on that bench with her and tried to follow Ymir and Reiner’s advice?”

He remembered how scared she had been when he had unintentionally performed the kabe-don in front of her. He remembered the uncomfortable laugh she had given when he had tried to use those pick-up lines on her.

“No,” he said. “She didn’t.”

“How about before that?” Armin said. “Did she smile when you spoke to her in the library? Or when she walked you back to the dorm?”

“She did, yeah,” Eren said, remembering. He frowned. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

His best friend let out a soft sigh. “What I’m trying to say is,” he said, “she smiles when you’re being yourself. When you’re not following anyone else’s advice on how to treat her. When you’re doing what feels right.”

Comprehension dawned on Eren, causing him to go, “ _Ohhhh._ ”

“Think about it this way,” Armin said. “What do _you_ want to happen next with her?”

Eren was silent for a minute.

“Um,” he said, “I want to get to know her better. I want to hang out with her some more. I…I want…more than we have right now.”

“So you want a friend,” Armin pointed out.

“What?” Eren said. He definitely wanted to be more than friends with [Name], and he thought Armin already knew that.

“What you’re describing…is kind of like _friendship_ ,” his best friend explained. “Don’t you think so?”

He frowned. That was true, but…he was friends with Armin and Mikasa and the others. [Name] was friends with Mina. He wanted his relationship with her to be special, not like the relationships they had with other people.

“You just got out of a big fight,” Armin said. “She isn’t going to want to date you now. Why don’t you be her friend for a while and see how things go from there?”

He had to admit, Armin’s words stung. How would Armin know if [Name] wanted to date him or not? He couldn’t read her mind.

Then he remembered what Kirstein had said. _She doesn’t like you that way. Stop simping over her and leave her alone._

He hadn’t considered the possibility that she didn’t like him that way and would never like him, no matter what he did. Kirstein was right. He was being a simp.

But…he genuinely did like [Name], and not just in a romantic way. She was a good person and her presence was always positive. Even if she didn’t want to be his girlfriend, he still wanted her in his life.

Even if it meant that he would be stuck in the friend zone forever.

“You’re right,” he found himself saying. “I’ll treat her like I treat you all. I’ll try to be her friend. Just…friends. Nothing more.”

***

“So, you have the rest of class to complete this assignment,” Ms Reiss, the Language teacher, said as she pointed at the topic written on the whiteboard. “Write a letter to a person who has influenced you greatly. That’s all.” She took a seat in the teacher’s chair. “Raise your hands if you have any questions. You may begin.”

Eren flipped his notebook open. Language class wasn’t his favourite (then again, there were few classes he actually enjoyed), but he didn’t mind non-stressful solo assignments like this one.

He scribbled the title on the top of a blank page. He knew who he was going to write about. No one had influenced him as much as [Name] had, and he wanted to write to her.

 _Since I have to hide my feelings from her,_ he thought, _I might as well write down what I really think here._

He spent the next thirty-five minutes writing to [Name] about how much she meant to him and how he liked her smile and how much it hurt that she wasn’t his. However, as he signed the letter, his eyes drifted towards her.

[Name] sat somewhere near the front of the class, several seats away from him. She was working on her own assignment, blissfully unaware of his eyes on her and his feelings for her.

He smiled automatically on seeing her, but then he remembered.

_She doesn’t like you that way._

_She isn’t going to want to date you now._

_I’ll try to be her friend. Just…friends. Nothing more._

He sighed. His friends – they were right. She was never going to be his. There was no point in writing that stupid letter to her.

Besides, what would Ms Reiss say if she saw it? What if she told [Name]? He didn’t think she would, since she was a teacher and all, but he knew how nosy the teachers at his school were. He knew what Principal Smith had done at Sasha’s party. He couldn’t take that risk.

With another sigh, he balled up the paper in his fist and threw it towards the bin.

***

“And that’s everything,” you finished, exhaling loudly as you told your best friend about Eren Yeager and your fight.

You were relieved; you didn’t like keeping secrets from Mina, and you needed to talk to someone about it now that you were on good terms with him again.

The two of you were in your room after a long day. The lights were switched off as you lay in your beds having a heart-to-heart.

Fortunately, Mina was very understanding and didn’t seem to be hurt that you hadn’t told her before. “Oh, [Name],” she said sympathetically. “I’m so sorry you went through that. I wish I could’ve helped.”

“That’s okay,” you replied. You hugged your Meowth plushie tight. “I’m okay now. I just wanted to talk to someone…about how _weird_ Eren was being.”

“Weird?” Mina questioned. “You think he was weird?”

“Well…yeah,” you said, pulling your quilt up over your body. “I mean, don’t you think so, too? Don’t you think his behaviour was weird?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said lightly. “Like, who are we to judge him? What if he had a good reason for being weird?”

“Like what?” you asked. “What reason could he possibly have for being an asshole?”

“Maybe he was trying something that didn’t work out?” she suggested. “Like, maybe he didn’t mean to be an asshole but ended up coming across that way?”

You frowned, not liking the way she was defending him. “Mina, he trapped me against a wall and called me a bitch. He dressed like a delinquent and put on that awful cologne and tried to tell me bad jokes. Don’t get me wrong, he looked hot, no doubt. And I get that some people want to change their image –”

“Hot?” Mina squeaked, interrupting you. “You think he’s _hot?”_

“Uh…yeah,” you said, your face heating up. “He is, right? I mean, I’m not blind. He’s clearly…very good-looking, even more so as a delinquent...”

“Interesting,” she said. “You think Eren Yeager is hot. _Interesting._ ”

You didn’t like the tone she was using. “What are you trying to say?” you said, your eyes narrowed.

You heard Mina sit up in her bed. “Think about it, [Name],” she said, the excitement in her voice causing it to rise several octaves higher. “You find him hot.”

“Yeah,” you replied. “So?”

“You were miserable for three days because you fought with him,” she said.

“Yeah, so?”

“You missed him the whole time and you were so relieved when you made up.”

“Yeah, so?”

“You can’t stop talking about how cute that card is and have it propped up on your desk like a trophy.”

“What are you implying, Mina?” you asked, all out of patience.

“Don’t you get it?” Mina said excitedly. “You like him! You have feelings for him! And not just friendship feelings – you have mushy, romantic feelings for Eren Yeager!”

You snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous,” you replied, rolling your eyes.

Mina was silent for a while. You waited for her to retort, but she didn’t. Finally, unable to bear the suspense anymore, you said, “Okay, what?”

You could almost hear the smile in her voice. “You said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous,” she repeated. “You didn’t say, ‘No, I don’t have a crush on Eren Yeager!’ or ‘No, I don’t like him!’”

“But…” you said. “I didn’t say that because it was obvious…”

“You didn’t say it,” she insisted, “because you know I’m right! You _have_ feelings for him! That explains _everything_ you’ve been going through!”

“Huh,” you said. Your heart began to beat faster at her words. Was it possible? Did you like Eren Yeager?

Your crush on Gunther had not been like this. That time, you had been a pathetic, blubbering mess who would squee when he did something cool and hide when you saw him.

This was different. You did not want to hide when you saw Eren – in fact, you wanted to run up to him and talk to him. You wanted to see his face light up. You –

“You should ask him out,” Mina said enthusiastically. You could’ve sworn _she_ was more excited over you supposedly having a crush than _you_ were meant to be. “Go out somewhere, just the two of you.”

“What?” you said incredulously. “Don’t be silly. If I ask him to hang out, just the two of us, he’s going to think it’s a date! And he’s going to think I like him!”

“But [Name],” she said. “Why is that a bad thing?”

You frowned again. She had a point. Would it be such a big deal if he thought you liked him? What would he do, make fun of you? You knew he wasn’t the kind of person to do that.

“Look,” she said, “just go on one date with him. See how you feel. You’ll know then if you really like him or not, even though I’m pretty sure you do.”

You thought about it. You had been craving for more of him since your fight had ended a few days ago but hadn’t come across him again. You did want to hang out with him and talk to him some more. Maybe a date was exactly what you needed?

“Fine,” you said. “One date. Let’s see how it goes.”

***

“Hey Eren!”

Eren had been taking a long drink of water after soccer practice. Hearing [Name] call out to him had caused him to choke, spitting the rest of his water out of his mouth.

He turned to find her running up across the field, waving at him. Shit. He didn’t want her to see him like this. He knew how nasty he looked after practice – Ymir had shown him a couple of weeks ago – and he definitely didn’t want to expose her to any of _that._

But it was too late. She had clearly already seen him; however, she didn’t look like she wanted to throw up in her mouth. That was a good sign, right?

Then he remembered who else was on the team. Panic began to set in. He had to hide her from Floch. If Dick-For-Brains saw her, he would…

…he would what? Compliment her legs, maybe? And so what if he did? [Name] wasn’t Eren’s girlfriend. Floch was free to say whatever he wanted to her. And if [Name] was interested in Floch, like Ymir had said she was, so what? He had to accept it. After all, she didn’t like him that way. He was trying to be her friend, right? Nothing more.

He clenched his fist hard, causing his nails to dig into his skin. Forcing a smile, he turned towards her. “Hey. What’s up?”

“I couldn’t wait to see you, so I came here,” she said. Her face was flushed. For a minute he got his hopes up, thinking it was because of him.

But then he remembered she had been running, and his heart sank.

“Guess what?” she said, reaching into her pocket for something, “I – oh, hey Floch!”

To Eren’s horror, his rival and mortal enemy chose that moment to walk past them. He swallowed nervously. Suppressing the urge to sink his fist into Floch’s face and hide [Name] from his sight, he forced another smile, nails digging deeper into his skin than before.

But Floch did not say anything sleazy like he had been expecting him to. “Sup?” he said as he walked past, not bothering to look at either of them.

Eren heaved a sigh of relief and unclenched his fist as Floch disappeared. That was easier than expected. Maybe he had been wrong to worry about [Name] and Floch meeting.

Still, he had his eye on that red-haired bastard. If he did so much as _look_ at his girl –

He gritted his teeth. He was doing it again. [Name] was _not_ his girl, and never would be.

“Anyway,” [Name] said, pulling out two pieces of paper from her pocket, “there’s this anime I watch that’s been adapted into a live-action movie and I really want to see it. I have two tickets. Do you want to go with me?”

Against his will, his hopes began rising again. Was this…could it be…did she…

He bit his lip. What was wrong with him? This wasn’t a date. She wasn’t asking him out. He was being stupid. She obviously just wanted to thank him for his help with her software or had no one else to ask.

“Aren’t you going to ask Mina or your other friends?” he said, trying to sound casual. “I mean, I don’t think I’m your first choice.”

“Oh, um,” [Name]’s smile vanished. “I, uh, Mina said she had to study for exams and the others, uh, they said the movie’s too violent for them, so…”

“Right,” he said. Of course. She had no one else to go with, so she was inviting him.

He did want to hang out with her and get to know her better. But he also had to treat her like he treated all of his friends.

“Yeah, I’ll come,” he said, trying not to sound excited. “What about Mikasa and Armin? Should I ask them to come, too?”

[Name]’s face fell completely. “Well,” she said slowly, “I mean, if you don’t want to be alone with me, then sure, but I…”

Shit. In his haste to “treat her like a friend”, he had given her the wrong idea and hurt her feelings.

She was getting sad. He could see her features drooping. And he had already promised he would never hurt her again.

He grabbed one of the tickets from her hand and read it. “Saturday evening? I’ll be there,” he said quickly. “Should we meet at the bus stop outside an hour before?”

She nodded quietly, her face blank.

“Great,” he said. “See you later.” Without another word, he walked past her and towards the locker rooms.

***

“What did he say?” Levi asked, as Hange walked out of the staff room.

Her shoulders slumped. “Mr Dok said no.” She rolled her eyes, shooting the staff room door a glare. “He said you were chosen to be Santa fair and square and I couldn’t take it away from you.”

“What? But I don’t even _want_ to do it!” Levi said indignantly. “I want it taken away from me! _Please_ take it away from me!”

“I know,” she sighed. “I tried to tell him that. But he wouldn’t listen.”

He scowled. “Damn it. I should’ve gone in there with you.”

“Although,” Hange perked up. “He wouldn’t let me be Santa, but he DID say I could host the party! So that’s something, at least.”

“Right,” Levi said, as the two walked towards the classrooms. He frowned. The corridors and classrooms were _filthy_. Whoever had cleaned them this evening had done a terrible job. “What does the host do, anyway?”

“Keep running commentary, ensure everyone’s having a good time and so on,” she replied. “Oh, and I get to read out the Secret Snowflakes all night! I’m quite excited about that, even if I can’t be Santa.” She glanced sideways at him. “Speaking of which, how are the Snowflakes coming along?”

Levi shoved his hands in his blazer pockets, annoyed. “I’ve been receiving…a few.”

Hange laughed. “You’re lying. You have a habit of shoving your hands into your pockets when you do. You’ve been receiving a lot, haven’t you?”

He sighed.

“They won’t leave me alone!” he complained. “Every day, whenever I don’t have class or basketball practice, they somehow find me and –”

He stopped when a boy from the second year walked up to him, standing in his path.

“Excuse me, Mr Santa,” the boy said respectfully. He handed Levi a folded piece of paper. “For you.”

Levi nodded at the boy and took the paper from him, pocketing it.

“See what I mean?” he said.

As part of his duties as Santa, Levi had been given a big red sack to put Snowflakes in. His role as Santa had been announced to the school and he had been told to go around campus when he had time, spreading cheer and asking people to write Secret Snowflakes to their favourite people. Of course Levi, being Levi, had done no such thing. He had tried to hide from the masses as much as he could, spending his free time in his room. However, the students somehow always managed to find him or find ways to get their Snowflakes through.

As Hange walked down the corridor, Levi didn’t follow her, making his way to a broom closet instead. She frowned. “What are you doing?” she said. “I thought we were going to grab dinner.”

“Are you kidding?” Levi replied. He pulled a broom out of the closet. “This place is revolting. If I didn’t clean it now, I would be thinking about it _constantly_ during dinner and then I’d have to come back later and it would too dark to clean and it would be all YOUR fault.”

Hange let out a small chuckle as she watched him sweep the floor. “You’re a strange man, Levi,” she said fondly. “A strange, strange man.”

***

“[Name]!” Eren called as he raced up to you.

You stopped breathing. You didn’t see him in casual clothes often, so when you did it literally took your breath away. He was wearing a green t-shirt paired with black jeans, a thick black coat and red Converse. A simple outfit, yet he pulled it off so well that you couldn’t help but stare.

God, he was beautiful. He somehow managed to look even hotter in casual clothes than he did dressed as a bad boy.

You mentally slapped yourself. _Focus, [Name]. The date hasn’t even started yet and you’re already thirsting over him…_

“Hi!” you said as he joined you at the bus stop you were standing at. You were no slouch either, and had dressed up in your best clothes. It was a date after all, wasn’t it? Even if he had tried to avoid it at first…

Your mood darkened when you remembered how he had tried to weasel his way out of the date by inviting Armin and Mikasa. But then you remembered how hot he had looked after soccer practice, his jersey soaked with sweat and muscles exposed, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he drank water...

You bit the inside of your lip. What was wrong with you?

You expected him to compliment your look, but he didn’t say anything. “What time does the bus get here?” he asked instead.

“In about six minutes,” you replied, double-checking your phone to make sure.

“Cool,” he said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his coat.

There was a silence. He did not say anything, and the only thing you could think of was how pink his cheeks were and how cute the small, shy smile on his face was and how well those jeans hung from his hips…

You slapped yourself in the head again. _Stop being a thirsty bitch. Stop being a thirsty bitch. STOP. BEING. A. THIRSTY. BITCH._

“So,” Eren said finally. “What’s this movie about?”

That got you talking, and you began telling him all about the anime it was based on. The bus arrived, but that did not stop your conversation. Eren was a surprisingly good listener and asked questions and spoke about other movies he was interested in throughout the bus ride.

You were both standing in the bus, holding a pole by the entrance. At some point, you were so engrossed in talking that the top of your hand inched closer to the bottom of his. He jerked his hand away as soon as you touched, causing you to stop.

Oh well. So what if he didn’t want to touch you? He was behaving himself, and you were thirsting over him like a starved succubus. You had to control yourself. You were having a good time and didn’t want to ruin the mood because you had no self-control.

You soon got to the movie. You had purposely picked one with a lot of violence because you figured he would enjoy that sort of thing. And it seems you were right. For the first half of the movie, he watched eagerly as giant naked humanoid monsters swallowed people.

However, during the second half of the movie, you absent-mindedly put your arm up on the armrest that was between your seats, the one his arm had been lying on the entire time. For a brief moment, your fingers touched and your heart beat furiously within your chest.

Maybe…just maybe, there was a small possibility that Mina was right. Maybe you _did_ have feelings for him. There was no other explanation for why your body was reacting so feverishly to his mere presence.

Eren quickly pulled his hand away. That was the other thing: if Mina was right and you did like Eren, then he most certainly did _not_ like you. While he had been warm and friendly so far, there was a sort of wall between you. It felt like he was being too cautious; like he was trying to keep his distance from you. You were disappointed; your body was clearly sending signs that it was _very_ attracted to him, and his body language was the opposite.

After the movie, you decided to get dinner at a nearby sushi train restaurant.

“Sorry, [Name],” said Eren apologetically, as the two of you took your seats. “I know you’re a fan of the anime and all, but that movie was terrible.”

“Oh, believe me, I know,” you laughed. “Still worth it to see bad CGI renditions of people being eaten. I’m lowkey disappointed that the actor playing the main character wasn’t as hot as he is in the anime.”

He smiled softly to himself as he picked a plate of tuna off the belt. “I’m glad you invited me. I’m enjoying myself.”

“I am, too,” you smiled. You weren’t sure if he was telling the truth, but you really did enjoy his company.

“What other anime do you like?” Eren asked.

That set you off, and you began talking about your other favourite anime. Eren didn’t watch much, but he sounded keen on watching the few you had recommended.

You asked him about his embarrassing defeat against Trost High. He laughed, and proceeded to tell you all about Titan Academy’s rivalry with the other schools in the most dramatic manner.

You gave a happy sigh as you listened to him talk. The more time you spent around him like this – when it was just the two of you talking, no silly jokes or weird behaviour – the more you liked him. You couldn’t believe Eren had been in your class all year and you had never spoken to him or gotten to know him before.

You and Eren talked and laughed the whole time. After dinner (which he had insisted on paying for, as you had bought the movie tickets), you walked back to the bus stop, where you would catch the bus back to Titan Academy.

Your face was now fully flushed. You were having a good time, a _really_ good time. You glanced at his hand, inches away from yours. You were itching to hold it, to bask in his warmth. Truth be told, you didn’t want to leave. You wanted this date – or whatever it was – to keep going all night. You weren’t ready to say goodbye to him yet.

You spotted the perfect way to stall. “Hey, look,” you said, taking advantage of the opportunity to grab his hand and pull him towards the shop you were pointing at. “An ice-cream shop!”

Eren allowed you to drag him to the shop window, and you glowed with happiness as his hand was _finally in yours._ “Do you want to get some ice-cream?” you said hopefully, grasping his hand with both of yours.

He laughed. “[Name], it’s late. We have to get back to school or we’ll be in trouble.”

You pouted. Since when did he care so much about getting into trouble? The boys’ Hall Director, Hannes, literally did not give a shit about what they did. On the other hand, your Hall Director, Rico, was a hard-ass and would definitely have something to say if you were out too late.

But you would rather get yelled at a million times over by Rico to have one more hour with Eren. Obviously, he didn’t feel the same way.

“Please,” you continued to pout, giving him your best puppy-dog look. “Don’t you want to get ice-cream with me?”

“I…” Eren bit his lip as he gazed at you with an unreadable expression on his face. Then he shook his head and peered into the shop window. “I’m…not sure. See, this place is filled with couples.”

You followed his gaze. He was right. Almost every table had two people in it, every single one of them either looking lovingly into the other’s eyes or laughing as they fed the other ice-cream.

“If we go in there,” he continued, “we…we…we might be mistaken for one.”

“Oh,” you said, as he wrenched his hand out of your grasp. “Right.”

Would it be so bad to be mistaken for a couple? Did he hate the idea of dating you so much that he didn’t want to be mistaken for your boyfriend?

“Sorry,” he said suddenly. “I…I must have sounded rude. I…I didn’t mean to…”

He _had_ sounded rude, but you didn’t tell him that. Instead, you just shrugged and looked away.

Eren turned towards you. You found yourself meeting his gaze.

“The truth is,” he began, and you caught a glimpse of something in his eyes. What was it? Longing? Sadness? Pity? You couldn’t figure it out, but you had a feeling he was about to tell you.

“The truth is,” he repeated, and then looked away. “[Name], I…I’m…I have…”

You frowned. What could he possibly want to say that was so bad, he couldn’t spit it out?

He blinked and took a deep breath. “What I actually wanted to say was…I’m on a diet. That’s why I can’t have ice-cream and stuff.”

“Oh,” you said again. You didn’t believe him, but you looked away and said nothing else.

As disappointed as you were, your heart would not stop pounding against your chest. What the fuck was wrong with you?

Your eyes met his green ones again. You gulped.

***

You sighed as you walked to your room after returning to school and saying good night to Eren. What was wrong with you? Why were you thirsting over him so much? Why did you want to run back to him and take his hand and listen to him talk again?

Oh, who were you kidding? Mina was right. You had feelings for Eren Yeager. Mushy, romantic feelings, exactly how she’d described it. And it was bad. You didn’t just like him, you were _smitten_.

You placed a hand over your pounding heart, trying to calm it down.

“Fuck,” you whispered to yourself.

While you may have been ready to admit that you liked him, you knew he was not attracted to you _at all._ It had occurred to you after he’d left, that what he had actually been trying to say outside the ice-cream shop before was that he had noticed your feelings for him and didn’t like you the same way. What else could it be?

Your heart hurt.

***

**TITAN TIMES**

**December 8**

| 

**Issue 780**  
  
---|---  
  
**ASK SONNY AND BEAN**

_Hey there, Titans! Is school stressing you out? Are you having trouble with your friends? Do you need advice on that special someone? Has your body been going through changes? Well, you’ve come to the right place! We’re Sonny and Bean, and we’re here to answer any questions you have about high school life! So, feel free to ask us anything – and we do mean anything – and we’ll answer your questions every week, right here, on the Titan Times!_

**To ask us a question: email us at** [ **asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd** ](mailto:asksonnyandbean@titan.edu.pd)

Today’s featured questions:

_Hi Sonny and Bean,_

_I’m sure you’ve been getting a lot of questions about developing relationships, but mine is about friendship. My best friend had a big fight with the girl he likes. They’ve made up now, but I’ve advised him to take it slow and let their friendship build instead of rushing into a relationship. What’s the best way of building up their friendship?_

_Aryan Coconut_

Greetings, Aryan Coconut!

We’re glad to see you help your friend out in his time of need! It’s good that you’ve advised him to be friends for now. However, make sure that both of them are on the same page with this relationship – she might be wanting more, while he’s pumping the brakes and giving her the wrong idea. A good, honest conversation is always recommended.

In terms of building friendships, here are our top tips:

  * Get to know your friend: Ask them questions about themselves and listen to them talk. Don’t be afraid to let them know if you have something in common with them!
  * Hang out: Take your friend out somewhere outside school. Being away from school might get them to open up more and show you a side of themselves they haven’t shown before!
  * Be there for them: Look out for any issues you might think they’re struggling with. For example, your friend might be having trouble with school and be too embarrassed to admit it. A simple offer to study together might do wonders for your friendship!
  * Introduce them to your friends: Your friend might feel more welcomed if they are introduced to a supportive, caring environment, and who better to provide that than people who are already your friends?



Love, Sonny and Bean

_Hey Sonny and Bean!_

_So a guy in my class has a crush on my best friend, which is great and I totally ship it! However, I haven’t told her about it, because he doesn’t want her to know and I want him to make his move when he’s ready. But now I think my friend might be liking him back and I still haven’t told her that he has a crush on her! I feel terrible for keeping all of these secrets! Am I a bad friend?_

_Genki Girl_

Greetings, Genki Girl!

First of all, you’re a good person for caring about your friend and looking out for her like you are! Secondly, everyone has secrets, even us! Some secrets are necessary secrets, like you not telling your friend about this boy because you’ve promised him you won’t, or us not telling our friends about our true identities because it would ruin the mystery! Finally, it’s great to know that your friend is developing feelings for him, too, but it’s very easy for misunderstandings to occur in such situations. Our advice would be to talk to this boy and explain to him why it’s important he tell her everything, so they can confess to each other and have a chance at happiness!

Love, Sonny and Bean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to add that while Armin's advice is technically correct (in my opinion, at least) and would've worked in the beginning, here it's making things worse because he hasn't considered that Reader-chan might actually have feelings for Eren, too, nor has he told Eren how to turn that friendship into something else. Also Eren, being Eren, didn't pay attention to the second part of Armin's advice (be friends with her first and then develop your relationship) and instead took it to mean that Armin wanted him to stay in the friend zone because she would never like him.
> 
> Thank you all for reading!


	7. Mate Acquisition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the night of the party, and both you and Eren are dreading it. You give Connie some shocking news that threatens to ruin everything. Your relationship with Eren deteriorates further when he embarrasses you in front of everyone. You're determined to never speak to him again until you hear some surprising words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning, this is a long, long looooong chapter. And Eren is a handsy drunk.

“Are you,” Sasha began, letting out a deep breath, “seriously telling me that you _forgot_ to get the vodka? You had one job, Connie. One. Job.”

Connie dropped the bag of snacks he was carrying onto the couch next to Sasha. “I didn’t get the vodka,” he explained slowly, “because I _wasn’t_ supposed to get it. You said _you_ were going to get it this afternoon.”

“Why would I make another trip to the convenience store to get it when you were _literally_ _just going?”_ she yelped.

“We discussed this, Sasha,” he sighed, sinking into the seat next to her. “I said I was going to the convenience store. Then you said you wanted to go this afternoon. Then you said we mustn’t forget to buy alcohol for the Christmas Party this evening to get Eren and [Name] drunk. Then I said –”

“Yes!” Sasha exclaimed. “I said that so you could GO GET IT FROM THE CONVENIENCE STORE YOU WERE JUST GOING TO.”

Connie was about to retort when someone shushed them loudly.

“Sorry,” they both said in unison. It was early morning, after all, and the boys’ student lounge was empty. There was only one other person in there with them.

They turned to face the person and immediately recognised him. It was Eld Jinn, an upperclassman and friend of Sasha’s cousin Hange.

“That’s okay,” Eld said. He gave them a small smile. “So, uh, sounds like you kids are looking forward to the party tonight.”

Connie and Sasha exchanged worried glances. _Shit._

Would Eld tell on them? Or could they trust him to keep it a secret? He had participated in Sasha’s party five months ago, after all, and he was friends with _Hange,_ which meant he was used to people flagrantly breaking the rules all the time. Right?

“Chill,” he said, on seeing their faces. “I won’t tell anyone.”

They sighed with relief.

“In fact,” Eld continued, “I might be able to help you.”

They exchanged glances again. “What do you mean?” Sasha asked.

He stood up. “Follow me.”

They walked with Eld as he led them to the elevators. However, instead of going to the second floor, like they were used to, Eld led them straight to the fourth floor, where the third-years lived.

Sasha and Connie followed Eld as he walked to his room, which he shared with Moblit Berner, another one of Hange’s friends.

“What if this is a trap?” Sasha murmured to Connie as Eld tapped his key card to unlock the door.

“I don’t think it is,” Connie whispered back. “If he wanted to get us in trouble, he would’ve told a teacher or something, not taken us to his room.”

“I’m not going to get you in trouble,” Eld whispered, giving a small laugh. He put his finger to his lips and motioned to them to stand outside the room. “Wait here.”

They peered into the room curiously. Moblit was on one of the beds, although they couldn’t tell if he was asleep or not. They saw Eld slip into his room and discreetly retrieve something from under his bed, before placing it in a paper bag.

Sasha gasped as she realised what it was. “Is that…” she whispered to Eld, who had joined them outside the room.

Eld nodded, handing the bag to her. “Yes,” he whispered. “It’s bourbon. Should get the job done quicker than vodka.”

Connie frowned. “Why are you helping us?” he asked. “Why would _you_ want [Name] and Eren to get drunk?”

He shrugged. “Let’s just say I’m looking out for my juniors.”

Of course, Sasha and Connie did not believe him. But neither of them were keen on going back to the convenience store and convincing the cashier that they were old enough to buy alcohol.

“Okay then,” said Sasha. “How much do we pay you?”

Eld shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Just make sure they get drunk.”

They looked at each other. It sounded too good to be true.

“Of course,” Eld added, “if anyone asks, you didn’t get this from me. In fact, I did not give you any alcohol nor did I encourage you to get them drunk. Got it?”

Sasha shot an uncertain glance at Connie, who shrugged.

“Okay, then,” she said. “We have a deal.”

***

As Eren walked past the hobby store, something caught his eye.

“You guys go on ahead,” he told Mikasa and Armin. “I’ll catch up in a bit.”

Mikasa shrugged and the two walked on. Eren stood outside the store and studied the toy on display.

It was a Nendoroid figure that seemed vaguely familiar. He finally recognised where he knew it from: it was the main character of the movie he had seen with [Name] last week, except in chibi anime style.

[Name]…

He was on a shopping trip in town to get a few supplies before he went back to Shiganshina for winter vacation. The Christmas Party was tonight, and while the whole school was looking forward to it, Eren was not.

When [Name] had invited him to watch a movie with her last week, he was thrilled. That feeling, however, was soon replaced by misery as he realised he had to spend an entire evening out with her, _as friends_. Hanging out and pretending to not have feelings for her had been the hardest thing he had done, period. She had looked _so beautiful_ and was all smiley and animated. He had tried his best to be friendly and was being “himself”, as Armin had advised. But he had been forcing himself to keep his distance so much that he wanted to cry the whole time.

And then she grabbed his hand and led him to that couple-y ice-cream shop. She gave him that puppy-dog look. He could literally feel his heart break.

Now he understood why his friends spoke about girls and feelings like they did. This was torture, plain and simple. He would rather injure his legs a thousand times over doing his Saitama training routine than continue pretending like his feelings for [Name] were platonic.

He had not seen nor spoken to her since then, other than a few sad smiles exchanged here and there. They had to answer their exams that week, and he had been busy studying and then packing to go back home for the holidays. Yet thoughts of her continued to assault him everywhere he went. And now here he was, standing in front of the hobby store because he had seen a toy from the same franchise she liked.

He was pathetic.

He took a deep breath. It was one more night of seeing her. Then, he would be back at Shiganshina, far away from her, where hopefully he could do something to get rid of his feelings and be a proper friend to her next term.

He felt someone come up and stand next to him. “Hey,” the man said, causing him to jump.

It was Gunther Schultz. He was a third-year and president of the Tabletop Club. What was he doing here?

Of course. Tabletop Club. Hobby store. He was probably wondering what _Eren_ was doing there, since it wasn’t exactly his scene.

“Hey,” Eren replied. “I’m just…looking,” he added defensively.

Gunther shrugged. “Sure,” Then, after a pause, he said, “Didn’t take you for a Nendoroid fan.”

“I’m not,” Eren muttered. “I just…I know this character. She…my friend….” His voice broke, and he couldn’t speak anymore.

“I see,” the senior nodded.

They both stood in silence for a while, their eyes on the shop window.

“You know,” Gunther said slowly. “In the west, people give each other gifts for Christmas.”

“Okay?” Eren said uncertainly, not sure why Gunther was telling him this. “Good to know…?”

“Just saying,” he shrugged. “In our culture, as you know, we don’t give _everyone_ gifts, but we do give them to people who are special to us. Like children. Or partners. Or people we’re interested in.” He shot him a look before turning his attention back to the shop window.

Eren didn’t respond. He continued looking at the Nendoroid figure.

“Say, for example, if you liked a girl,” Gunther went on. “A girl who was really special to you. A girl you probably wouldn’t see through all of winter break. You would want to give her a gift at the Christmas party tonight.”

Eren studied the figure. The character wore a brown jacket and held two swords in both of its arms. Its eyes were large, in a bright, teal-green colour.

“Just something to keep in mind,” Gunther said, patting him on the shoulder. “Good luck, Eren.”

He left, leaving Eren standing alone in front of the shop.

***

**Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : HAYYYYYY CUZ

 **You** : Hi Hange!!! What’s up?

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : Need a favour

 **You** : Right. Of course. Why else would you text me?

 **You** : Anyway, what do you need?

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : Okay first promise me you won’t tell anyone about this

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : Except Connie ig

 **You** : Should I be scared?

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : No. Not yet at least

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : So. Tonight. The party. You’re going to be there I assume

 **You** : Wouldn’t miss it for the world

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : Great, great. And Eren and [Name] are going to be there too I suppose

 **You** : They will be, if I have anything to say about this

 **You** : Why would you ask about those two specifically?

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : Not important

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : What’s important is that tonight, at the party, you have to make sure they kiss

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : The fate of the universe depends on it

 **You** : Dramatic but okay

 **You** : I’m hoping they kiss too, but why would you want them to kiss so bad?

 **You** : That’s like a really weird thing to get off on

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : EW

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : THEY’RE CHILDREN SASHA

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : But yeah. Don’t ask questions and don’t tell anyone about this

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : Got it?

 **You** : Hey wait a minute

 **You** : How did you find out about Eren and [Name]?

 **Hange** **ೖ** **(** **⑅σ̑** **ᴗσ̑)** **ೖ** : BYEEE SASHA SEE YOU TONIGHT LOVE YOU <33333

***

“You know what? She has a point,” Connie said, taking a long sip of hot chocolate.

The party was in full swing. The auditorium had been decorated with tinsel, holly, streamers and balloons. The room was lit up softly and cheery music blasted from the speakers, where Moblit stood with his DJ equipment. Hange stood on the stage, jauntily encouraging people to get into the spirit (which was technically Levi’s job’s, but it’s not like _he_ was doing it) and occasionally reading Secret Snowflakes out to the students, who swarmed around the room, talking and laughing. The teachers were present too, all of them wearing tacky Santa hats.

A long table was present on one end of the room, laden with all kinds of snacks and winter delicacies. A similar table stood next to it, staffed by two third-years who were serving hot chocolate and other drinks. A grumpy Levi Ackerman stood at the end of the table, dressed as Santa Claus, in a red suit that was clearly too big for him. The suit’s belly sagged, making him look like he was pregnant, and his white beard was very loose and hung from his chin instead of his mouth. A large red sack was kept next to him, where students were placing folded up pieces of paper for Hange to read.

“What do you mean?” Sasha asked, shoving a whole Choco Pie into her mouth.

“I –” Before Connie could answer, Hange’s loud voice could be heard over the speaker.

“Our next Snowflake,” she said, “is for Jean Kirstein from Class 1! It says, ‘Jean, I’m in love with you. I consider you to be one of my best friends. You’ve always been there for me and I hope you’ll be able to see me as more than a friend someday.’ From M from Class 1!”

The student body oohed in unison. All eyes turned to Jean, who swallowed nervously.

“Mikasa?” he whispered. “Do you…really feel that way about me, too?”

Everyone groaned loudly, including Mikasa, who was at the snack table. She rolled her eyes and walked away.

“Anyway,” Connie said. “As I was saying, Hange’s right. We have to make sure they kiss. Or at least, make them _want_ to kiss.”

Sasha frowned. “I don’t follow.”

“During your birthday party,” he explained, “you had this whole plan of how you wanted me to learn about your feelings by kissing me, didn’t you? We need to do something like that, introduce a romantic or intimate aspect to [Name] and Eren’s relationship. At the moment, they think they’re friends. [Name] has no idea how Eren feels about her. But if she kisses him, or finds herself _wanting_ to kiss him, she’ll wonder why. And then she’ll question her feelings. Not to mention, it would give Eren the perfect opportunity to confess.”

She bit her lip. “Yeah, I see what you mean,” she said. “That’s not a bad plan. Getting them to kiss is extremely hard, though. It’s not like we can control minds or anything.”

“If we could,” he said, “they’d already be together by now. Let’s just hope we can get them drunk enough to make out.”

Sasha nudged him in the side, pointing at someone across the room. “Look. There’s Eren.”

Eren was seated at one of the tables by himself. His head was cradled in his hands.

“He looks like he’s in pain,” Connie observed. “And Mikasa’s not doing anything about it. Interesting.”

“And look,” Sasha’s sharp eyes spotted [Name] amongst the crowd, walking towards the beverage table.

[Name], too, looked like she hadn’t slept well, with dark circles under her eyes and a frown that looked like it had been on her face for days.

“Shall we get going, then?” he asked.

She nodded, and the two set off to put their plan in motion.

While Connie went up to [Name] to stall her, Sasha quickly slipped into the line for hot chocolate and ordered two drinks.

She then left the auditorium, and, when she was certain no one was looking, poured out half of both drinks, twisted the cap off the bottle Eld had given her and mixed it into the mugs.

She placed one of them on the edge of the beverage table, after catching Connie’s eye, and made her way to Eren.

***

“Are you sure you’re okay, Eren?” Armin asked worriedly.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Eren nodded, attempting to smile widely at his best friend. “I just have a headache. Don’t worry about me. Go on, enjoy the party.”

“But…”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to hand in one of those Snowflake thingies?” Eren pointed at Levi next to the stage. “You should get it done soon, or Hange won’t have the time to read it out later.”

Armin’s concerned eyes lingered on Eren, before he sighed. “Well. If you’re sure. I’ll see you later, then.”

Eren grinned at Armin until Armin finally made his way to Levi. When he was gone, he sighed and laid his head on the table.

Being at this party was a lot harder than he thought it would be. At first, things had been great. He had been talking and laughing with his friends and having a great time. However, it quickly ended when [Name] walked in.

He groaned. Why was he in so much pain? He had what he wanted. She was still in his life, wasn’t she? She was his friend. They had hung out as friends. He had spoken to her at length. He knew her well enough to feel comfortable in her presence, to feel like he could tell her anything. That was what Armin had wanted for him, right?

As happy as he was with that, he couldn’t understand why he was hurting more now than before, when they barely knew each other.

[Name] had flashed him a tiny smile when she had entered. She didn’t walk up to him and talk to him. That’s all they’d been doing all week – smiling sadly at each other from a distance. Despite them apparently being friends now, she wasn’t being very “friendly” with him. In fact, whenever she caught his eye, she would smile and look so sad that his heart would break all over again.

He hadn’t updated any of his friends on his progress with her. Most of them knew about his feelings and would constantly ask him how things were going and try to give him more advice. As of their fight two weeks ago, he had stopped telling them things. As inexperienced as he was, he realised now that their advice had been terrible. Their meddling had only caused things to get worse.

He had only told Armin about [Name] and his apology to her, but after what Armin had said, he couldn’t help but feel like Armin’s timing was off. If being [Name]’s friend now and not acting on his feelings was the right thing to do, why did it feel so wrong?

He didn’t tell anyone about how they had hung out last weekend. As heartbroken as he had been the whole time, it had still been the best day of his life and thereby his secret to keep – for the time being, at least. He couldn’t help wondering if that was what their dates would be like if they were together. And when she had dragged him to that ice-cream shop and he saw all those couples in there…

Screw this. No more telling his friends anything, and no more simping for [Name]. He was going to suppress his feelings if it was the last thing he did.

“Hey, Eren,” Sasha, who had just sidled up to him, grinned. “Want a hot chocolate?”

He looked up at her. He was on a diet, but fuck that. He didn’t give a shit anymore. Besides, his next game was more than a week later, right after Christmas. He had time to work it off.

“Sure,” he said, accepting the mug from her.

***

“[Name]?” Connie asked. “You good?”

You blinked. “Huh?” you said, to realise you had been daydreaming while standing in line for a beverage.

Connie pulled you aside, away from the other students. “Something’s wrong,” he insisted, looking at you with worry.

You shook your head. It was sweet of him to worry, but you couldn’t tell him what was going on. “I’m fine, really,” you said. “Thanks for checking up on me.”

You couldn’t tell him. You couldn’t tell him how much your heart had been aching after your date with Eren last week. You couldn’t tell him how Eren Yeager was all you thought about lately. You couldn’t tell him how Eren had absolutely zero interest in you and saw you as nothing more than the weird computer girl who constantly pestered him with questions.

“Look,” he said. “Let me get you some hot chocolate, and then we can talk about it.”

You nodded. You didn’t want to tell him anything, but hot chocolate sounded nice. “Sure.”

You took a seat at one of the tables on the side. He soon appeared, handing you a mug. You took a long sip. “Yikes. That’s nasty.”

Connie laughed. “Yeah, it has got a – uh – strange taste, hasn’t it? Mine’s pretty weird as well.” He gestured to his own mug.

“Maybe we should ask for another one,” you said, frowning.

“No, don’t do that!” Connie said hastily. “Look at poor Nifa over there. She looks so stressed! We shouldn’t be worrying her any more than she already is!”

He had a point. Nifa, the third-year who was serving hot chocolate to several thirsty students, did look very anxious.

You and Connie sat in silence as you continued to sip on your hot chocolate. He kept shooting you concerned glances, and you looked away guiltily. You got along well with Connie – he was Sasha’s best friend and boyfriend, after all – but you had never been close to him. He –

He had a girlfriend, didn’t he? Wasn’t he the best person to ask for love advice?

Your head began to buzz, and you didn’t know why. But the hot chocolate had made you feel slightly better and you were more willing to talk to Connie now.

“Okay, so,” you said, “I’ll tell you.”

Connie nodded. “Tell me.”

“I’ll tell you,” you said again.

He gave you an amused look. “Yes, I know. Tell me.”

A long silence followed as you tried to organise all the thoughts in your fuzzy head.

“The truth is,” you said finally. “I…I like someone.”

Connie's eyes widened.

“Yes,” you said triumphantly, enjoying the drama. “You’re the second person to know. I like someone, but he doesn’t like me and I’m sad about it.”

He blinked at you uncertainly. “Are…are you sure you like him?” he said. “Like, it’s not just – I don’t know, like _friendship_ or something?”

Oh, you were sure. You had glanced at Eren when you had entered the room and he was so gorgeous that you almost wept. “I’m sure.”

“So, um, how do you know he doesn’t like you?” Connie asked. “Like, have you confessed to him yet?”

You shook your head. “I haven’t. And I can’t. He’s made it pretty clear he doesn’t like me. Like, the first time we hung out, last weekend, I tried to…I wanted to, uh, take things further, but he sort of…resisted.”

His eyes were as wide as saucers.

“Shit, [Name],” he said finally. “I had no idea. Why haven’t you told Sasha and the others about this?”

“I can’t,” you mumbled, gripping your mug hard. You drained the rest of your hot chocolate. “He’s someone in our class. What if say something to him? I couldn’t bear it if he…”

Even though you were trailing off, Connie seemed to understand what you were saying. There was a silence as he pondered over your words.

“Well, uh,” he shrugged. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry this is happening to you.”

“Thanks, Connie,” you said, smiling at him. “I’m sorry, too. I wish unrequited love wasn’t such a bitch. I wish it didn’t hurt so much.”

“Let me get you another drink,” he said, collecting your mug from you.

You stared vacantly at the table as you waited for him to come back.

“You know,” he said, as he returned with another mug of hot chocolate, “people often say, you should pick the one who likes you, not the one you like.”

“Huh?” you said, taking another sip of your drink. “What do you mean?”

“Like,” he said, giving you a small smile. “If there’s someone who likes you, you should pick them. The guy you like sounds like a douche, anyway. The guy who likes you will treat you right.”

You frowned, remembering Eren’s past douchey behaviour towards you. “He can be a douche sometimes,” you said, “but he’s trying really hard to be better. Besides, there’s no one who likes me.”

“That’s not true,” he said. “I know for a fact that there’s someone out there with a major crush on you. If I told you who it was, would you give him a chance?”

Your face heated up. There was really someone who liked you that way? You couldn’t believe it.

For a second, you fantasised about dating a faceless man: going to the movies with him and holding hands, talking to him over dinner and sharing a kiss over ice-cream.

But you knew. Whoever this guy was, he was no Eren Yeager. He would never be able to make you feel as happy as Eren did. And you would always be thinking about Eren if you went out with someone else.

“No,” you said, shaking your head. “I can’t, Connie. I like the other guy too much to do so.”

Connie’s face fell completely. “Oh.”

“Who is this guy, anyway?” you asked. “First I’ve heard of anyone having a crush on me.”

Before he could answer, Sasha and Eren appeared, Eren laughing at something Sasha was saying.

“[Name]!” Sasha squealed. “Hi! Eren wanted to see you, so we came here!”

Your heart began hammering against your chest, and you couldn’t stop the wide smile from spreading across your face. “He did?” you said, the buzz in your head causing you to feel dizzy with happiness. You stood up, your knees wobbling. “He did!”

“Sasha! Thank the Goddesses you’re here!” Connie squeaked. “We need to talk. Now.”

***

“We have a problem,” Connie said, as he and Sasha stood away from Eren and [Name].

Sasha frowned, not liking the serious expression on Connie’s face. “What happened?”

Before he could respond, Hange’s loud voice was heard again.

“Another Snowflake for Annie Leonhart from Class 1!” Hange said gleefully. “Annie, A wants you to know that they have a crush on you and admire you a lot! You sure are popular, girl!”

Everyone turned towards Annie, who looked away, disinterested. Sasha motioned for Connie to continue speaking.

“It’s [Name],” he said. He took a deep breath. “We can’t set her up with Eren. She…she’s in love with someone else, Sasha.”

 _“What?”_ she said, shocked. “How? But he…”

“I know,” he wailed, his fingers on his forehead. “She was just telling me about it! She sounded so sad! We can’t do this to her!”

“But…” Sasha’s eyebrows were furrowed. “At the slumber party, she didn’t say anything about this person.”

“Well, maybe she was lying?” Connie shrugged. “Or maybe this is something recent? She _did_ mention she went out with him for the first time last week.”

“Oh yeah?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “What did she say about this guy, exactly?”

“She said she tried to make a move on him on their date,” he said, remembering. “And he apparently rejected her? I’m not sure, she was very vague.”

“Did she say who it was?” Sasha said frantically. “If…if she really likes this guy as much as she says she does, then all of our plans…all of our hard work…”

“Go up in smoke, yeah,” Connie said. “And no, she didn’t say. She did mention it was someone in our class, though.”

“What if…” she said desperately, as she tried her best to save her sinking ship. “What if we told her that Eren likes her? Maybe she’ll fall for him instead?”

“Tried that already,” he said, sighing. “I didn’t tell her it was Eren, but I said that someone likes her and she should give him a chance. She said no because she’s too much in love with the first guy.”

“Ughhh.” Sasha gripped her hair. “This sucks. This sucks _bad_. What do we do? And that other guy, I’m willing to bet it’s Floch. It’s _so_ like him to ruin everything we’ve worked so hard for!”

“Hey, calm down,” Connie said hastily. “We’ll figure something out. If we don’t…”

Her shoulders slumped. “We could always set up Eren and Floch,” she mumbled.

“That’s my girl,” he leaned forward to give her a kiss and pat her on the head. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be okay.”

He felt Sasha stiffen in his arms.

“Um. Connie?” she whispered. “You said [Name] likes someone else, right? You’re absolutely sure?”

“Yeah,” he frowned. “She told me herself.”

“Then why…” Sasha began. She pointed at where they had been standing a few moments ago. “Why are [Name] and Eren about to _kiss?”_

“WHAT?” Connie yelled.

***

“Eren!” you said happily, standing up as Eren Yeager grinned at you. “You’re here!”

He waved the empty mug of hot chocolate he’d been drinking in your face. “I’m here!”

“You’re here!” you repeated.

You couldn’t believe it. You were so happy. Eren Yeager was here! He wanted to see you! And he was so cute, with his green eyes staring up at you and his cheeks so pink and that big smile on his face!

“You’re so cute!” you squeaked, pinching him on the cheek. “So cute!”

He continued to grin at you. He put down his empty mug and put his hands on your arms. “No, you.”

“You,” you said stubbornly. “You’re cute!”

He was about to reply when Hange’s voice interrupted him. “A Snowflake for Annie from Class 1! Annie, B wants you to know that you’re the most beautiful girl in the world and they love you. How lucky!”

“Nuh-uh,” Eren said, dismissing the claim. His hands stroked your arms clumsily, and your giddiness increased. “Heeesh lyin’. You is the most beautifullest, [Name]. And nice. And kind and sweet and amayshing.”

“Do you really mean that, Eren?” you murmured, leaning into him. Your arms found their way to his waist. “Because if you do…” you stopped suddenly. As buzzed as you felt, you had realised what you were about to say.

“I do,” he whispered, leaning closer. His lips were at your ear. Strangely enough, he smelled strongly of alcohol and chocolate. “What were you gon’ say?”

“I…” you whispered. You couldn’t think straight. Your breathing was ragged and your heart was beating faster than ever. Your head was fuzzy, but you were hyper-aware of his fingers on your arms, where they roamed from your shoulders to your elbows and back, alighting your skin underneath with yearning.

You felt someone’s eyes on you, and you turned to find Oluo Bozado watching you, a piece of heavily frosted cake in his hand.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Oluo said innocently, holding his hands up. “You guys carry on.”

You turned your attention back to Eren. His hands were now on your back, yours still around his waist. His lips were still at the side of your face. You weren’t sure what he was doing, but you could feel how soft they were as they fluttered against your skin.

You couldn’t take it anymore. He didn’t like you. He didn’t like you. Right?

Yet – not that you were an expert – this, what he was doing, felt distinctly like _like._

You wanted more. You wanted him.

“Eren,” you whispered. “Look at me.”

He obeyed. Peeling his lips off your face, he pulled back so he was facing you.

His lips were inches away from yours.

You really could _not_ take it anymore. He had to know. He had to know what kind of effect he had on you, what he was doing to you. He had to know how you felt.

You flicked your gaze back to his lips. Unconsciously, you found yourself leaning forward.

You would find a way to tell him, even if you couldn’t say it. Actions said more than words, right?

You didn’t notice the panic in his eyes.

You didn’t. If you had, you would have seen what was coming next.

One second you had your eyes closed, leaning in to kiss him. The next you found yourself blinking as cream and cake smudged the lower half of your face.

You stared at Eren in horror. Your gaze shifted to his hand, which was covered in icing. Oluo stood next to him, empty-handed.

The tears came automatically and you couldn’t do anything to stop them. You could feel the eyes of everyone on you. Embarrassment and heartbreak built up inside you.

You were a fool. A fool for, even for a moment, thinking that Eren Yeager actually _liked_ you. You had tried to force yourself on him, and he hadn’t been able to say no – so he smashed cake in your face in response.

You had to get away. You had to get far, far away from that auditorium and cry. And then you had to call your parents and tell them you wanted to switch schools so you wouldn’t have to see Eren or any of these people ever again.

You ran towards the exit, tears already flowing down your face and cake crumbs falling onto your shirt. You were a mess.

However, as you made your way to the nearest restroom, you heard Hange’s voice again.

“Well,” she said. “This feels like the right time to read this. A Snowflake for [Name] [Last Name], from Eren Yeager.”

***

Eren froze as he heard Hange’s voice say his name.

He hadn’t wanted to stay after what he had done. He was angry and ashamed of himself. He was also drunk, he realised that by now, but it was no excuse for what he had done.

He’d done it again. After trying, and failing, to not hurt [Name], he had gone ahead and smashed Oluo’s cake in her face.

Why had he done that? He wasn’t sure. She was flirting with him (he thinks she was flirting with him?) and, despite his better judgement, he had sort-of flirted back. He wasn’t sure what had gotten into her but it might have something to do with her also being _very_ drunk. Why else would she flirt with him (if that was indeed flirting?)

He couldn’t do it. As much as he had wanted to kiss her, and how tempting it had been to _just lean in_ , he didn’t want it to be like this. He wasn’t Floch or Reiner. He wasn’t going to take advantage of a drunk girl, and he liked [Name] too much to do something like that to her. He would only kiss her when they were both in their senses and had mutual feelings for each other.

 _“When?”_ That was a weird word to use. It was obviously no longer a question of _when_. She was clearly never going to forgive him for this, so chances of kissing her in the future were moot.

He wanted to die. He wished one of those giant monsters from the movie would appear and swallow him whole, if only to take away the shame he felt.

But before he could move again, Hange’s voice rang through the room.

He hadn’t submitted any stupid Snowflake letter to Levi, so what was she even reading? It was obviously another one of his friends’ dumb ways of helping. Which idiot was it now? He turned around to catch their eyes, but they were all looking ahead intently.

Then he saw Levi Ackerman glare at him in his silly costume and limp white beard.

“[Name],” Hange read. “I’ve never known what romance and love were all about until you told me that sex on hard concrete always hurts and I should try other alternatives. Wait. No. That’s not true. I’ve had a major crush on you before that, right from the time you kicked a soccer ball into my stomach.”

Blood rushed to his face as he recognised those words. They were his words, all right. He had written them. And he’d written them in Language class for Ms Reiss’s assignment. But he had thrown that letter into the trash when he had realised his efforts were futile.

So why was Hange reading it now? How did the letter fall into her hands?

“You make me feel things I’ve never felt before,” Hange continued. “I keep thinking about you – your beautiful eyes, the way you keep pushing your hair behind your ear when you’re nervous, the Pokémon stickers on your laptop and your smile. Your smile that immediately brightens up my day and makes me feel like I can do anything.”

He buried his face in his hands. He had just rejected the love of his life and now his private thoughts were being read out to the entire school. He had half a mind to bolt out of the room and break everything in sight.

“You mean so much to me,” she read, “And it hurts. It hurts because you can’t be mine. My friends keep giving me all this advice to impress you, and I’m always screwing up. I don’t know if I should try to get you to like me anymore. I know you won’t feel the same way about me and wouldn’t want to date me. And that’s why I’m writing this. Because I know I’ll never get a chance to tell you how I feel. But yeah. Here it is. I like you very, very much. I wish you were my girlfriend, but even if you’re not I’m still happy to have you in my life.”

There was a pin drop silence after Hange finished speaking. All eyes turned to Eren.

He decided that enough was enough and was already power-walking to the door. However, a large hand grabbed his collar as he tried to leave.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Reiner said.

“Let me go,” he said, through gritted teeth. His face was burning. He didn’t want to be around any of them. He wanted to go and break something.

“Eren, it’s okay,” Krista said gently. “We’re here for you.”

He turned around. Every single one of his friends was there, smiling.

“You did your best,” Marco said, while Sasha patted him on the back. “We’re proud of you. You don’t have to run or hide. You have nothing to be ashamed of. I’m sure [Name] and everyone else will see that.”

“She’s going to come back,” Mikasa said. “She has to respond. She knows I’ll break every bone in her body if she doesn’t.”

And despite everything, he found himself smiling. “You guys…”

They were all extremely stupid and had kind of ruined his love life. Yet he loved them all and couldn’t imagine wooing [Name] in any other way.

***

Eren was fully sober now. He had spent all night at the party with his friends, waiting, hoping [Name] would come back. But she hadn’t. Mina had gone to look for her earlier but couldn’t find her.

She had to come back, right? She had to respond to his unintended confession. He wasn’t sure if she had heard it, but he had to get an answer tonight, one way or the other.

Yet, as the hours passed, [Name] did not return. He found his heart breaking all over again. He was trying to put on a happy face for his friends, but his smile got smaller as the hours passed, until he stopped pretending completely.

“Okay, folks,” Hange said, with a strained smile on her face. “We’re going to wrap things up soon. I hope you’ve all had a good time, and if you haven’t –” her gaze immediately went to Eren, “there’s always next term! I’ve read all of the Secret Snowflakes, and I –”

She stopped speaking when Levi tapped on her shoulder. He whispered something into her ear and handed her a piece of paper.

“Oh,” Hange blinked. The wide smile returned to her face. “It appears I still have one last Snowflake to read out before I end the night.”

***

“It’s a shame things didn’t work out,” Sasha sighed, as she sipped on her drink. “I was really rooting for Eren and [Name].”

Connie shrugged. “Well. These things happen. He tried, and she didn’t like him back. Not her fault. Besides, we still get to set up Eren and Floch next semester, right?”

She managed a small smile, but it did not reach her eyes. “Yeah,” she said. “Looking forward to it. I’m just saying, it’s a pity they didn’t get to kiss, either. They were _so close.”_

“Yeah, well –” he began, before stopping. A strange expression appeared on his face.

“What is it?” she asked.

Connie blinked. “Oh Sheena. Sasha. We’ve been so stupid.”

“What?” Sasha frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“We could’ve gotten them to kiss ages ago,” he said. “If we had just used our brains.”

“What are you saying, Connie?” she asked.

“Think about it,” Connie said, excited. “We’re at a Christmas party.”

“Yeah,” she replied. “And?”

“And,” he said. _“What’s the one thing guaranteed to get people to kiss at every Christmas party?”_

***

“This last Snowflake,” Hange read, a proud smile on her face, “is for Eren Yeager. From Class 1. From [Name]. Also from Class 1.”

Eren’s heart stopped. No, that wasn’t right – he was still alive, yet he felt like his soul had left his body. He couldn’t move a muscle, aside from turning to face Hange and staring at her with his mouth open.

She came through. At the last minute, [Name] was here and was responding to his confession.

He knew he was going down. His courtship of her had always been public, right from his friends finding out to the well-spectated cake rejection to his confession being read out to the whole school. And now that she was rejecting him properly, she was doing it in front of everyone, too.

He was going to have his heart smashed to pieces. But, whatever it was, he would go down like a man. With no regrets.

“Dear Eren,” Hange read. “I’m going to keep this brief, because I know you’ve waited to hear this for a while. First of all, let me just say that you and all of our friends are dumb bitches.”

Everyone laughed and he found himself smiling, too. There were worse ways to be rejected, anyway.

“Second,” she continued, “it’s true that I didn’t think much of you at first. And then you went on to behave like a jerk and insult me, and I thought even less of you.”

He swallowed hard, refusing to look away from the stage. The whole room had their eyes on Hange and him. He wasn’t a coward. He was going to force himself to stay in that room and accept whatever she had to say.

“But then,” Hange read. “Things changed. My feelings changed. After our fight, I missed you so much and couldn’t understand why. I asked you on a date – yes, that was a date, Eren – to sort out my feelings and see how you felt about me. And when I saw how distant you were, despite appearing to have a good time, I thought it could only mean one thing: my feelings were unrequited. I thought you would never think of me as more than a friend, and I was heartbroken.”

A lump appeared in his throat. Surely she wasn’t – she didn’t – she couldn’t have –

“It’s true,” Hange finished, “I’m spelling it out for you because you wouldn’t get it otherwise. I like you, Eren. Like romantically. Like in a I-want-to-hold-your-hand-and-kiss-you kind of way. I feel the same way about you, as you apparently do for me. I’d love to be your girlfriend someday, if you still want me.”

Tears welled up in his eyes. He stood up, overcome with emotion, and the whole school now had their full attention on him.

And then [Name] appeared from behind Hange, her face and outfit clean and lacking any evidence that he had smashed cake on her earlier. Her eyes sparkled at him and a shy smile tugged across her lips. Her hands were behind her back, as if unsure of what to do next.

He swallowed nervously. His legs moved automatically and he walked towards the stage where she was standing.

“Wait!” he heard Sasha cry. “Stop!”

To his annoyance, Sasha and Connie rushed forward, stopping him in his tracks. Sasha caught hold of his arm, while Connie yanked [Name] off the stage.

Everyone booed loudly. Eren began to bristle with anger. This was his moment. This was _their_ moment. If they ruined it now –

Sasha shushed him before he could say anything and positioned him at one of the entrances. [Name] was also pulled forward by Connie and made to stand across from Eren at the doorway.

“Our work here is done,” Connie said, a satisfied smirk on his face. “You may proceed.”

***

Your heart hammered loudly, the sound reverberating in your ears, drowning out the hushed whispers in the room. The blood rushed to your face, heating it up and making you feel like it was on fire. You tried to face Eren confidently, while he gazed at you like you had just come back from the dead.

After a long silence, he finally spoke. “Did you…” he whispered, his breathing shallow. “Did you really mean that?”

“Every single word,” you replied, unable to take your eyes off his. “Including the part about you being a dumb bitch.”

He laughed, and your heart soared a little higher than before. “What about the part where you liked me and wanted to hold my hand and kiss me?”

You grinned. “I _do_ like you,” you said. “And I do want to hold your hand and kiss you.” You lowered your voice and shot a sly glance at his thigh. “And, um, judging by your Snowflake and _that,_ it’s pretty clear you feel the same way.”

“Huh?” Eren blinked and followed your gaze to his crotch. His face immediately reddened as he noticed the bulge on his thigh. “This isn’t – it’s not what you think!” he stammered. “I, um, this is a present for you!”

You smirked. “Sure is.”

“No!” Eren groaned in frustration. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object. “Not that I don’t want to give you _that other present_ someday, but, uh, this is a Christmas present. For you.”

Your eyes widened when you realised what it was. You were about to accept it when you remembered the object you were holding behind your back.

You held out your Meowth plushie. “I got you a present, too,” you said shyly. “It’s not…it isn’t new or anything, but it’s my favourite and I want you to keep it. I hope it reminds you of me when you’re in Shiganshina.”

Eren held out his toy and you exchanged gifts with him. You studied the Nendoroid figure. Normally you would’ve said something about how toys like that were not meant to be taken out of their boxes, but you were so touched by his thoughtfulness that you kept your mouth shut. “I…you remembered how much I liked the main character from that anime…” you whispered. Your thumb traced over the character’s face. “He…he even looks like you. Thank you, Eren. I’ll treasure this forever.”

He nodded. “And, uh…this is really cute, too,” he replied. “I…I don’t really like toys but this reminds me so much of you…you bet I’m going to keep it safe and think of you when I see it.”

You and Eren continued to grin at each other as the rest of the room hooted loudly. You knew what you wanted to happen next, but you didn’t want to make the first move. As much as you liked him, you were still a tiny bit salty at how he had smashed cake on your face the last time you had tried.

“Hey!” Hange’s voice interrupted _yet again,_ and hopefully for the last time that night. “Eren! [Name]! Look up!”

Confused, you both turned your gazes upwards to see a small green plant hanging in the doorway above you.

“It’s mistletoe!” she said cheerfully. “You know what that means!”

Everyone in schooled oohed loudly at that. “KISS!” they chanted. “KISS! KISS! KISS!”

You gave a small, embarrassed laugh. Nothing about this relationship was private, after all.

Eren, however, shrugged. “You heard the people,” he whispered. “So…um…can I….”

Connie and Sasha quickly swiped the gifts from your hands as the distance between the two of you narrowed.

“I promise I won’t smash cake in your face this time,” he continued. “Which, for the record, I _am_ very sorry for.”

You laughed again. “It’s good. And I thought you’d never ask,” you whispered. “ _Yes._ All of my yes.”

He stepped forward and placed his hands on your cheeks. Your arms found themselves back on his waist.

And Eren Yeager finally leaned in and kissed you.

His lips were soft as they brushed against yours. You could tell it was his first kiss, as he was trying to be gentle, like he was afraid you would shatter to pieces at any second.

But _fuck that._ You had waited for this _for so long_. And you fully intended to kiss him properly.

Grabbing his collar, you pulled him closer to you and deepened the kiss.

Your hands travelled up his neck until your fingers were entwined in his hair, bringing his face closer to yours. His hands gripped your cheeks harder and you could sense that even he had wanted this to happen for a while. His lips and tongue tasted like chocolate and you gladly lost yourself in them. Fireworks were going off in the back of your head and your heart was beating so loudly that you were sure he could hear it too.

The whole school cheered loudly. You could even see Principal Erwin Smith whooping out of the corner of your eye.

“So…” Eren said, as you finally pulled apart. “Does this mean…are we…”

You grasped his hand, unable to contain your smile as realised you could now hold Eren Yeager’s hand whenever you liked. “We don’t have to figure that out right now,” you said, ignoring the eyes of everyone on you. “We don’t even have to think about that today. All I want to do now,” your gaze flicked over to his lips, “is some more of _that_.”

Eren smirked. “Well,” he said, tugging on your hand, “let’s go make up for lost time, then.”

The two of you left the room as the school cheered once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Person: How self-absorbed are you?  
> Eren: *buys merch of himself for girl he likes*
> 
> Hope you liked this chapter! This is the finale, so thank you all for reading! There will be an epilogue-ish chapter after this one :)


	8. Courtship Displays of the Adolescent Male

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Eren have finally confessed your feelings to each other. But there's still a few questions left to answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place somewhere between Christmas and New Year's.

The referee blew his whistle, signalling the end of the soccer game. All of Titan Academy’s supporters in the stands got to their feet, cheering loudly.

Eren grinned. He spotted [Name] standing between Mina and Armin, and his heart soared. He had always fantasised about her watching him play and cheering for him. Except this time it wasn’t a fantasy. It was really happening, and he couldn’t be happier.

“Good work, boys,” Coach Sannes beamed at them proudly as he and Nanaba walked to the field. “We got those Rose Academy pricks good this time! Yeager, great work on that 88th-minute. Holger, nice equaliser in the first half. I’ll see you all in the locker room in ten minutes.”

Eren grinned again as his teammates clapped him on the back and he joined them in congratulating the other members. After they were done, the team walked to the locker room, the adrenaline of the game wearing off. Some of them stayed back to chat with the Rose Academy players, Eren included.

“EREN!” He heard a voice yell, and he turned to see [Name] barrelling her way across the field to him. With a chuckle, he waved goodbye at the Rose Academy player he was talking to and stretched out his arms.

She threw herself at him. “You were so great out there!” she said, panting heavily, her voice laced with pride. “I can’t believe I finally got to see you play! Your goal in the last two minutes was _so epic!_ You –”

He silenced her by placing his lips on hers. He knew he was sweaty and gross, but he was too happy to care, and [Name] had already made it clear that she didn’t mind him being like this.

After they pulled apart, he smiled at her. “Thanks for coming to watch me play,” he said shyly. “I’m…really happy to see you here.”

“Oh, Eren,” [Name] said, with a happy sigh. “I enjoyed it! And you did so well! I can’t wait to see you play again.”

He couldn’t believe it. She was here. She was happy. She was his. He leaned down to kiss her again, because he knew he couldn’t get enough.

“Gross,” a voice said, as someone appeared behind him. “Get a room, you two.”

He turned around, [Name] still in his arms, to find Floch rolling his eyes at them. “Good to see you, [Name].” Floch smiled at her, and Eren instantly stiffened.

He felt his anger rise. He wanted to yell at him, to tell him to fuck off and stop interrupting him when he was with his girl. He wanted to break his nose.

But the anger left as soon as it came. He remembered what had happened the last time he had gotten possessive with [Name] because of Floch. He couldn’t do it again. [Name] was her own person and she was more than capable of handling herself.

“Hi, Floch,” [Name] said, giving him a small smile. “Good game.”

“Thanks,” Floch’s chest swelled. “You know,” he continued, eyes still on her. Again, Eren suppressed the urge to break his face. “It’s a pity you made the decision to go for Eren. Especially after he smashed that cake in your face and all. You could do so much better than him.”

[Name] only laughed at that.

He couldn’t believe Floch was saying this to his girl when he was _right there_. Eren tightened his grip on [Name].

“When you’re back on the market after this goes south,” Floch said, “hit me up. I reckon we would make a good match.”

Oh, that was _it_. Floch was going to pay for saying that. He would rip off all his limbs. He would –

With a deep breath, Eren controlled himself and let [Name] speak.

“Nah,” she said. “I’m good, thanks. I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon. Or anytime at all, really.”

Floch shrugged and walked away.

He let out a deep breath that he didn’t know he was holding. She was still there, smiling at him. She hadn’t left him for that dickhead.

He wasn’t a crier, but he couldn’t help the small tears that welled up in his eyes. After everything they’d been through, she was _finally_ his.

“Now, where were we?” [Name] said, as she leaned in to kiss him again.

***

“Okay, so,” Petra took a long sip of her lemonade, before facing the rest of the group. “I know we’ve all gathered here for lunch to celebrate Levi’s belated birthday, but are we all agreed that losers pay for the winners’ meals?”

Everyone nodded. Levi, however, frowned. “Do you really want to talk about that silly bet at my birthday lunch?”

“Oh, come on, Levi!” Hange said. “It’s the first time we’ve been together since the Christmas party! We have to get this out of the way! Tell you what. If you win, we won’t make any more memes of you dressed as Santa!”

The others laughed, while Levi “tched” in annoyance. “So I suppose if I lose…”

Hange leaned towards him, grinning evilly. “I’ve got a video of you dressing up in your Santa costume that my TikTok followers would _love_ to see.”

His face went pale and he swallowed nervously.

“Right, let’s begin,” Eld said. “I’ll go first. As you remember, I bet that Connie and Sasha would get Eren and [Name] drunk. And they did. So I win.”

Gunther rolled his eyes. “Eld, you’re out.”

“What?” Eld cried. “Why?”

“Moblit saw you give Sasha and Connie that bottle of alcohol,” Hange shrugged. “You cheated, so you lose.”

“That’s not fair!” he argued. “They were going to go buy it anyway! I just –”

Petra sighed. “Eld, you were directly involved in the result. If you had just let them buy the alcohol themselves, you would’ve won.”

Everyone nodded, while Eld slumped back in his chair. “That’s fair, I suppose,” he said. “Who’s next?”

“Me,” Hange grinned. “Everyone in school saw them kiss, like I said they would!”

“Hange, come on,” Oluo said. He took a sip of his juice. “Everyone also saw you literally _ask_ them to kiss.”

“They were gonna kiss anyway!” she insisted. “I just…encouraged them!”

“Not to mention the way Sasha and Connie placed them under that mistletoe was _very_ suspicious,” Eld said.

She shrugged. “Sasha and Connie were always rooting for their friends to get together.”

“Oh yeah?” Mike said. “So if we checked your phone right now, there wouldn’t be any texts to Sasha or Connie asking them to make sure those two kissed?”

Hange glared at Mike, before crossing her arms over her chest. “Fine,” she said. “I know when I’m beat. Let’s move on.”

“I’m next,” Petra said. “I said they'd get together by the end of the night! And you guys _know_ I didn’t cheat or do anything to influence their decision! So I win!”

There was a silence as the group contemplated over her words.

“Hang on,” Levi said. “You said they would be boyfriend and girlfriend by the end of the night.”

“I did,” Petra said smugly.

“What was it the girl had said before she left the room?” he asked. “Something like, ‘I don’t know what we are but I want to make out with you more?’”

“We don’t have to think about this today,” Mike corrected, quoting [Name]’s words.

“Yeah, that,” Levi said. “So technically…”

“…they didn’t get together that night,” Gunther finished. “If you’re going by that, they did not want to DTR it then, and hence did _not_ become boyfriend and girlfriend that night.”

They all turned to face Petra.

Petra sighed. “This is so unfair,” she mumbled. “I should’ve won. Just because of a technicality…”

She was interrupted by the waiter, who had just appeared with their meals.

The group took a break from the discussion to focus on their food and talk about other things. A birthday toast was made to Levi. After everyone was decidedly full, Oluo brought them back on track.

“So,” he said. “The bet. I believe it was Levi’s turn.”

Levi nodded. “Yes. I said there would be a long shitty speech involved and we would be forced to listen to it. And there was no shortage of long shitty speeches that night.”

Everyone tried to think of holes to point in his statement, especially Hange, who _really_ wanted to release that TikTok.

“I suppose he’s right,” Eld said finally. “Eren _did_ write a long Snowflake for [Name], and we were all forced to listen to it. It’s not like Levi went up to Eren and made him write it.”

“Do we know that for sure, though?” Petra pointed out. “Do you guys remember how shocked Eren looked when his letter was being read out? It was almost as if _he_ didn’t write it.”

They all squinted at Levi suspiciously. Levi, on the other hand, rolled his eyes.

“You ask him,” he said. “He’ll tell you he wrote those words himself and it wasn’t me who made him write them.”

“His Snowflake was so hard to read, though” Hange mused. “It definitely Eren’s handwriting, it was too messy. There’s no way Levi could’ve written it. And the paper was all crinkled and creased, like it had been crumpled before.” Her mouth fell open as she realised what had happened. “Levi, you _didn’t!_ ”

Levi looked away, saying nothing. The others turned towards Hange, confused.

“He didn’t submit that Snowflake, did he?” Hange continued. “The Snowflake was actually a letter Eren had written to [Name] at some point, that he threw in the trash when he realised he couldn’t go through with it. And I think you found it while cleaning the classrooms, like you normally do. And since you were Santa…”

“…if _you_ submitted that confession as a Snowflake, no one would suspect anything,” Mike finished.

Everyone looked at Levi, who was still not looking at them. Finally, he sighed.

“I didn’t do it to win the bet,” he muttered. “That wasn’t my intention. I knew that the brat was never going to have the balls to confess, so..”

“Awww, Levi,” Oluo said, wiping invisible tears. “That is _so sweet!_ Deep down, you really _do_ care!”

Levi turned towards Hange. “I will not protest to any TikToks you upload of me if we all forget this ever happened.”

“Too late!” Hange grinned. She had her phone pointed at him. “I already have you on camera admitting to being concerned about Eren Yeager and his love life!”

Levi sighed unhappily. He did not deserve this treatment at his birthday lunch.

“I’m next,” Gunther said. “As you all remember, I predicted that they would exchange gifts, and they did.”

“And you were also spotted outside the hobby store convincing the brat to buy that toy of himself,” Levi said. “Next.”

“I didn’t _convince_ him!” Gunther protested. “I just…”

“You were still involved, dude,” Eld pointed out. “Which doesn’t make it a win.”

Gunther slumped back in his chair. “Okay. Fine. Whatever.”

“My turn,” Oluo said triumphantly. “The spirits were right. There _did_ turn out to be cake involved!”

“You’re already out, Oluo,” Petra said, rolling her eyes.

“What?” he cried. “Why?”

“You literally stood next to them holding a piece of cake,” she said. “I mean, you could have at least _tried_ to be subtle about it!”

Oluo “tched” in annoyance, not unlike Levi would.

“Which leaves Mike,” Eld said. “You predicted that Principal Smith would embarrass someone. And he obviously hasn’t done that so far.”

“That’s true,” Mike pointed out. “But, unlike Petra, I didn’t give you a time frame of when that would happen. Principal Smith still has time to do something.”

Petra snorted. “It’s been ten days since the party, Mike. By your logic, we could be waiting forever for someone to be embarrassed. Just accept your defeat gracefully, like the rest of us did.”

“Well,” he frowned and stroked his chin. “Okay then. Give me the rest of today. If he doesn’t embarrass anyone by then, I will concede.”

A waiter appeared to clear their plates away. “I’ll pay for my own meal now,” Mike continued. “But if I do end up winning, you have to pay me back.”

Everyone nodded. “Sounds fair,” Gunther said. “Okay, Mike. We have a deal.”

Mike turned towards the sky and silently prayed for Erwin’s trolling powers to not fail him today.

***

You gripped Eren’s hand hard. “I’m so nervous,” you whispered. “What if they didn’t like it? What if they thought it was dumb? What if they all –”

“Shhh,” he whispered back. He placed a quick kiss on your forehead. “You’ll be fine, [Name]. You’re idea’s really good and you’ve worked so hard on it. I’m sure Stohess U will see that.”

You nodded, his words making you feel slightly better. You turned around to face your friends. “Thank you all for coming here to support me,” you said, giving them a small smile. “I really appreciate it.”

“We had no choice. Yeager threat–” Jean winced in pain when Mina stomped on his foot. “I mean – anything for you, [Name].”

“And your idea’s really good!” Armin insisted. “I’m sure you’ll win something!”

You smiled at them again. The Ideathon was finally here, and, with Eren’s help, you had successfully completed and presented your athlete training management tool. With his contacts, you had managed to get input from soccer players from other schools. While you both had spent the Christmas period with your families, Eren had offered to meet up with you at school on a few other days to help you with your project, to which you’d agreed – you were very behind after your fight with him and subsequent denial of feelings. As hard as it had been to keep your hands off each other and do some actual work, you had managed to churn out a decent prototype you were quite pleased with.

However, as soon as you had arrived at the venue, you were disheartened. There were three times as many participants as there were last year, and a sizeable number of those were from Ehrmich Prep, a selective school for students who wanted to pursue careers in tech.

Needless to say, you did not have your hopes up. Initially you thought you would be lucky to be in the top ten. But the honourable mentions (fourth to tenth place) had already been announced, and your project was not among them.

“And now for the winners,” the announcer said. You continued to grip Eren’s hand hard, threatening to cut off circulation to his fingers. “The third place goes to Dirk Reiss from Sheena High with his exercise reminder mobile application.”

Your heart sank as you clapped with the people around you. Two more spots were left and your chances of winning anything decreased with every announcement.

“The second place,” the announcer read, “goes to Titan Academy student [Name] [Last name] for her athlete training management tool.”

You blinked in shock as everyone clapped, your friends cheering the loudest. You couldn’t believe it. What had begun from kicking a soccer ball to Eren’s stomach had evolved into technology worthy of winning second prize at Stohess U’s Ideathon! You continued to stand there in shock, until Eren gently pushed you forward to collect your prize.

“And first place,” the announcer called, “goes to Ehrmich Prep’s Gabi Braun for…”

Eren beamed at you proudly from the audience as you held your certificate and you grinned back. Your prize money wasn’t as grand as the first place winner’s and your software wouldn’t be developed by the Stohess team. But it was something, right? You were proud to win second place at least! You had built something that would help people like Eren someday and Stohess U had recognised that. You had no doubt things were going to get better for now from now on.

After the ceremony was over, you made your way back to your friends. However, in between them all congratulating you, a stranger appeared and tapped on your shoulder.

“Hey,” he said, when you stared at him with a quizzical expression. He looked like a university student and was probably no more than a few years older than you. “You’re the one who got second place, right? Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” you said, touched that these random strangers were taking their time out to congratulate you.

“So, uh,” the man said. “My name is Zeke. I’m a grad student here, studying software engineering. I want to say this before anyone else gets a hold of you. I think your idea’s great and it’s got a lot of potential. I’d like to work with you and build it, if you’re interested.”

Your eyes nearly popped out of your skull in surprise.

“Yes!” you squeaked finally. “Yes! I’d like that very much!”

“Awesome,” he said, and stuck his hand out for a handshake. “Here’s my phone. Let’s exchange contact details.”

As he handed you your phone back after giving you his number, he said, “So, what inspired you to make something like this? It’s a fantastic idea, but I mean – no offence – you don’t exactly look like an athlete.”

“Oh, um…” A smile appeared on your face as you remembered that day on the soccer field. “I, uh, accidentally kicked a soccer ball into my boyfriend’s stomach while he had soccer practice and found out he was overtraining, so…”

As soon as the words left your mouth, you realised what you had said. Boyfriend. _Boyfriend._ Eren was your boyfriend.

You quickly glanced at him to see if he had objections to you using that word.

And, instead of being alarmed, Eren had the biggest smile on his face.

Zeke laughed. “Yikes. I feel sorry for your boyfriend. Anyway, congrats on winning again, [Name]. I’ll email you soon about your project.”

After he left, you turned back to Eren. “I…I hope that was okay,” you whispered, squeezing his hand. “I know we haven’t discussed it yet, but…”

He shook his head. “[Name], it was more than okay,” he whispered back. “You’ve been my girlfriend in my head for so long now, it feels good to say it out loud.”

You smacked him in the arm and laughed as you got back to your friends.

***

“Wait,” you said, stopping in your tracks and causing the people behind to bump into you. “The Trost Film Festival is an actual thing? Not a prank you guys were playing on me?”

After attending the Ideathon award ceremony, you and your friends had decided to check out the local film festival that had been going on that week in the city. To your surprise, it was called the Trost Film Festival, just like Ymir had said during your slumber party. You had always thought the Trost Film Festival was a dumb prank they’d been playing on you, but…

Ymir shrugged. “To be honest, I didn’t expect it to be a thing either,” she said. “At that time it was code for ‘Operation Hook Up [Name] and Eren’, but when I saw it was a real thing, I thought we could check it out.”

You nodded. “Yeah, I’m glad we did, it seems like fun,” you said. Then you realised what she had just said. “Wait a minute. You guys were all plotting to set Eren and me up? Since the slumber party?”

Sasha laughed loudly. “Oh, [Name],” she said, slinging an arm around your shoulders. “We have _so much_ to tell you.”

As you walked through the festival with your friends, you listened as they described the entire tale of Eren’s quest to woo you, right from the night you had walked him back to his dorm to his confession at the Christmas party. Eren added occasional titbits, such as telling you about what Floch had said about you when the ball had hit him to describing how his letter to you had somehow been submitted as a Snowflake.

“Eren,” you said slowly after they had finished. “That was…I mean, I’m flattered that you tried so hard, but…honestly, all you had to do was tell me you liked me and ask me to go out with you. Even if I didn’t like you then, we would’ve been friends and I would’ve gotten to know you and eventually fallen for you.”

“THAT’S WHAT I FUCKING TOLD HIM,” Jean almost screamed. “Yeager’s brain is the size of a pea, unfortunately.”

“Shut up, Kirstein,” Eren said, the tips of his ears turning red. “You just said you didn’t WANT me to have a girlfriend!”

“THAT’S BECAUSE YOU DON’T DESERVE ONE!” Jean retorted. “YOU…”

You rolled your eyes as they began to squabble, unable to conceal the smile on your face.

“You know,” Marco said. “It still doesn’t explain why Hange and her friends were so involved, though.”

“Yeah,” Mina frowned. “Isn’t it weird how Eld gave Sasha alcohol and Hange tried to get them to get you guys to kiss and so on? Like, why did they care so much? Are they really just that nosy?”

“Yes, they are,” Mikasa said. “I know what they’re like. They can’t resist drama.”

“Maybe we should ask them when we see them next,” Krista said. “Sasha, didn’t you see Hange at Christmas?”

Before she could respond, Connie spotted Hange and Levi and their friends entering a building ahead.

“What the fuck?” Ymir said in disbelief. “What are the odds?”

Exchanging glances, you all raced towards your seniors, eager to demand answers.

“Oh, hey kids!” Petra Ral said warmly, as you greeted each other. “It’s nice to see you here! Didn’t take you for film buffs!”

“We’re not,” Eren shook his head. “But right now we’re here to ask you some questions. What are _you_ guys doing here, anyway?”

“It’ll have to wait, though,” Hange frowned. “We’re on our way to watch this documentary that begins soon, so…”

“Documentary?” Ymir said incredulously. “Why on earth would you come here to watch a _documentary?”_

“ _Ymir!_ ” Krista hissed. “That was rude!”

“No, I get why you’d think that,” Hange nodded. “But this one’s won a prize, and critics have called the director an up-and-coming talent.” She shrugged. “I don’t know, we just thought it’d be worth checking out.”

“What’s this documentary called, anyway?” you asked. “Maybe we’ll check it out, too.”

Your friends groaned loudly. “[Name], no.” Sasha pleaded. “No documentaries. Please. Unless it’s one of those food ones that deconstructs fancy dishes or something.”

“It’s not, unfortunately,” Mike Zacharias shook his head. “This one is called _Courtship Displays of the Adolescent Male.”_

“Look, we have to go,” Hange said. “You kids join us. Come on.” She grabbed your arm and dragged you towards the screen she had been walking towards before.

You turned around shot a helpless look at Eren and your friends, who sighed and followed you into the room.

The documentary began soon after. A glaring disclaimer noted that none of the incidents or characters in it were inspired by real events and real people, and any similarities were purely coincidental. You rolled your eyes. Whatever.

“In this video, we will follow the triumphs and trials of the adolescent male as he attempts to court a female in his natural environment,” the narrator said. His voice was deep and calm and _very, very familiar_.

“Where do I know this voice from?” you murmured to Eren, who shrugged.

“The focus of this documentary is a boy called Aren Eager,” the narrator continued. You raised your eyebrows at Eren, alarmed.

“It’s…probably a coincidence, right?” he said, though he did not sound convinced. “Like the disclaimer said…”

“Aren is a student at Giant Academy,” the narrator continued. “Giant Academy is a private boarding school located on the outskirts of the fictional city of Frost.”

You exchanged nervous glances with your friends.

“Now, let us learn how Aren attempts to choose and court his mate at Giant Academy,” the narrator said. “We will begin with _Part 1: Attraction_ , where Aren chooses his mate, an adolescent female called [Suspiciously Similar Name] [Suspiciously Similar Last Name].”

You choked, even though you hadn’t been eating or drinking anything. You glanced at the third-years who were seated at the back. They were whispering amongst themselves, too.

The narrator went on to describe how Aren Eager was a baseball player and how when [Suspiciously Similar Name] had thrown a baseball at him, he had fallen in love with her. His smooth, deep and maddeningly familiar voice described Eren’s quest to pursue you with such accuracy that you couldn’t help swallowing nervously. How did your story get out like this? Who knew the story to such detail that they were able to make a whole _documentary_ about it?

You studied the actors. They even looked like Eren and you, with the guy having brown hair and green eyes and the girl looking very similar to you. What the hell?

“Okay,” you whispered to Eren. “We’re watching the whole thing and all of the credits. We have to know who made this so we can sue.”

He nodded. “Right.”

You watched anxiously as the narrator described everything that had happened between you and Eren in the past two months. He even described the third-years’ Christmas party preparations and how they had chosen Levi to be Santa.

You had to admit, it was a good documentary. If it wasn’t so obviously about you, you would have enjoyed it a lot more and even rooted for Aren and your expy to get together. The absurd way in which the story was narrated, like it was a nature documentary about a wild animal trying to mate, was not lost on you, and you had even sniggered a couple of times when the narrator described how Eren – sorry, Aren’s “territorial behaviour” had frightened [Suspiciously Similar Name] and how Aren attempted to “mark his territory” by using the “wall-punching cliché” instead of “marking his territory with urine, like his peers in the wild would”.

The documentary even shed light on several details you were not aware of. It answered your questions of why the third-years were involved by describing their bet amongst themselves (you and your friends shot them a dirty glare at that). It even detailed how Levi Ackerman, out of kindness to Eren, had submitted his Language class assignment as a Snowflake to be read at the party.

Eren turned around and shot a grateful smile at Levi before turning back to the screen.

By the end, you were very intrigued. This documentary was clearly the story of how you and Eren got together, with little snippets about your friends and the third-years to flesh it out. You weren’t sure how to feel – you were very pissed that someone had made a movie about you, yet at the same time kind of…flattered? It was a strange feeling.

However, you could feel Eren’s grip on your hand tighten. He was _not_ happy about this.

You waited for the credits just to see who, exactly, was behind this madness. With bated breath, you watched as the first lines of text began to appear.

_Director…Erwin Smith._

Every single Titan Academy student in the theatre, including you and Eren, groaned loudly.

_Written by…Erwin Smith._

“I should’ve seen this coming,” Eren muttered. “After that stunt he pulled the last time at Sasha’s party…”

_Producer…Erwin Smith._

“Well,” Jean said, as your friends stood up to leave. “That explains everything.”

_Editor…Erwin Smith._

“I thought it was decent,” Ymir shrugged. “The girl playing me was hot, not gonna lie.”

_Director of Photography…Erwin Smith._

“At least he explained where Eren’s Snowflake and everything else came from, right?” Krista said, trying to sound positive.

_Production Designer…Erwin Smith._

“What’s up with them?” Connie asked, pointing at the third-years.

_Casting Director…Erwin Smith._

Your group turned towards them. Everyone except Mike was digging into their pockets.

_Narrator…Erwin Smith._

You saw them all slap currency notes into Mike’s hand, who smiled smugly.

_Special Thanks…Erwin Smith_

You kissed Eren on the cheek. “Hey, I don’t blame him,” you murmured into his ear. “Ours is one heck of a story and I’m glad it was told.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to each and every one of you for reading, giving kudos and commenting! Your participation in this story has made it a joy to write and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I liked writing it! I love you all <3


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